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d0wnb4df0rf1cm3n · 2 years ago

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Still be here in the morning?

Nikolai Lantsov x F!Reader

Summary: You drive Nikolai wild. You want him to see you, to see you, but you're scared. If you give in to your desires and you let yourself fall, will he still be there in the morning?

Word Count: 2.9K

Warnings: SMUTTY SMUT, LOTS OF SMUT, lots of teasing, a lil bit of angst, and some fluff. Also the reader's nickname is Mouse - but it's not a size thing, it's an occupation thing *thumbs up emoji*

Author's Note: This started off as a smut thing but became a whole story thing so enjoy ;D

It was safe to say you drove Nikolai wild. You hardly listened to his rules, questioning your Captain in his every decision and driving him crazy with your constant bickering. You knew that you could, you were Nikolai's star crewmate and he would never risk firing you. No one was a better diplomat, marksman, or sailor - except perhaps Nikolai himself. You were a good detective too - you were the only one of his crew to have figured out his true identity.

You had teased him about it on a brief visit to West Ravka - an old family painting had given it all away.

"You'll never guess what I found, Cap." You said, waltzing into his quarters and jumping up onto his desk. He tilted his face up to you - indicating that he was listening - but kept his eyes focused on the maps laid in front of him, studying new routes out west. You were only docked in Os Kervo to collect a round of new supplies - enough to keep you afloat to Novyi Zem or even further.

"Tell me, Mouse. What have you found that is so worth sharing that you break into my quarters?" He used the affectionate nickname you had picked up since joining the crew - you were quiet, almost undetectable when need by. Of course, Nikolai knew how annoying and boisterous you could get when you were comfortable. Still, the nickname had stuck. In fact, you were almost certain that aside from Nikolai, and the twins, no one could remember your true name. It didn't matter. You had moved on from that life.

"Well, Tolya and I spent most of our afternoon in the galleries in Os Kervo-"

"-leaving Tamar to collect the supplies? Yes, I heard about that. Just because you keep us out of trouble with the law does not mean that you get to delegate all your duties to someone else. We work together, Mouse, you'd do well to remember it."

"Yes, yes, she said she was fine with it. Something about getting Tolya's poetic arse off her back for a few hours," Nikolai chuckled at that, "And anyway, the interesting thing is what I found in the galleries. You see, despite the Fold, West Ravka is still a united nation-"

"I'm aware."

"Stop interrupting me!" You swatted him with a loose piece of paper on his desk, "It's rude. You'd have thought that you had some manners - what with your pretentious nature."

"Is there a point to this, Mouse? Because I suggest you get there soon."

"Well, what I was saying was, I came across a portrait. A new one - well, sort of. It had the King - Pyotr, that is - and his wife, and their sons. Did you know that they had 2? I had simply forgotten." A cheeky grin had snuck onto your face and Nikolai was now looking directly at you. You leaned in close to his ear, "I'd say they did the younger son a disservice, wouldn't you? Your Highness?"

Nikolai moved swiftly, clamping his hand down over your mouth. "Does Tolya know?"

You move his hand off your mouth, "Of course not. I'm not one to be going around spreading rumours that are not mine to spread."

"Good. And you're going to keep it that way. Especially if you want to stay on this ship."

"Oh, Nikolai. You're not going to fire me. You won't risk having the biggest threat to your secret not on your side. I'm a diplomat - I know how intimidation works," Nikolai fixes you with a stare, "Ok, I was a diplomat, whatever. Semantics. Point is, you're not going to fire me. Your secrecy depends on it."

After that day, your teasing had increased ten-fold and Nikolai's patience with you had decreased just as much. He hardly spoke to you if he didn't have orders to give you. And it pissed you off.

To be perfectly honest, you made his blood boil. Nikolai didn't know what it was about you, but you knowing who he was had tipped him over the edge. He thought that he was untraceable - a new persona, a new look. He'd made a point to never dock in Ravka - but needs must and there was no way they'd survive a trip to Kerch. They'd been running on fumes. To be honest, the trip had gone better than expected. But of all the people to find out, it just had to be you. He stewed alone in his chambers. They were currently in Novyi Zem, planning to head further west. Ravka had no power further west than Novyi Zem, a notion which many - including you - were grateful for.

He'd never taken the time to understand what you were running from - almost everyone in his crew was running from some demon, but you had never once let slip who you were before you joined Sturmhond's crew. He knew that you were a diplomat of some kind and that you were half-Ravkan, but beyond that, you were a mystery to him. Perhaps that's what pissed him off. That you knew exactly who he was and who he had been and he knew nothing about you.

A knock came at his door. Who the fuck could that be? To his knowledge, everyone was out partying in the taverns. Who could resist a peaceful night out when you spent every other night on a ship sailing in the middle of an ocean? Nikolai could. And so could this mystery person apparently. Nikolai opened his door before the guest knock again, groaning when he caught sight of who it was. You were standing at his door - coat and boots discarded and your shirt haphazardly untied. You pushed past him and made yourself comfortable in his chair, smiling as he ran a hand over his face.

"Awhh, don't look too happy to see me, Sturmhond. Or should I say, Nikolai?" You'd taken to teasing him in the privacy of his room, where you were sure no one could hear you.

"What do you want, Mouse?"

"I just wanted to see how my dear Majesty was holding up. It has been a rough week for us all."

"Cut the bullshit. I know you're here to piss me off. Not tonight, Mouse. Please."

"Ooh. I like it when you beg. Do it again." You grinned at him. You knew you were getting under his skin.

"I said not tonight. Get out, Mouse. Go piss off some drunkard in a tavern." Nikolai said, nearly pushing you out of the door. "Maybe he can fuck the attitude out of you," he whispered under his breath.

"Make me."

"I'm sorry, what?" Nikolai said, turning around to face you again.

"I said, make me, Lantsov."

"I told you to stop fucking using that name," Nikolai growled, pushing you up against the wall, his arm pushing under your boob. You flushed pink, heat pooling in your stomach.

Nikolai grinned, "Oh, I see." He looked you up and down, scanning your figure. You could feel your underwear soak with every second of his gaze.

"What do you see, Captain? Need me to get you a spyglass. Could help you-" You were cut off by Nikolai's lips on yours. They were soft, gentle, and yet demanding at the same time. It was nice. This was nice.

"Is that what you wanted, Mouse? Attention from your Captain?" The honourific felt dirty coming from his mouth. You felt the desire to push him further - to piss him off until he gave you what you wanted. What you needed.

"Are you sure it's not what you wanted Captain? You seem to be a lot more excited by this than I am."

Nikolai nearly growled at that, attaching his lips to yours again, before slipping your belt off. He slipped his hands down to your core, feeling the wetness and smirking.

"Not as excited as me, huh?" He rubbed a circle around your clit and watched your defenses crumble. You grabbed a fistful of his jacket in your hand as your hips bucked away from him.

Nikolai lifted you up easily, depositing you on his desk, "I wanted to fuck you that day. When you hopped up on this desk and threatened me the first time. Should've done it. Should've shown you exactly who the boss is around here."

He grabbed the small knife he kept in his breast pocket off the desk and flicked it open. You gasped. Nikolai grazed the knife against the outside of your hip, slicing cleanly through your underwear. You were glad you'd taken off your stays earlier - you weren't sure if you could survive him ruining your most comfortable stays.

He placed a gentle kiss on your throat before pulling your shirt off. He gazed at you, momentarily starstruck, before latching his mouth onto your nipple. A hand came up to toy with the other, and you dissolved into a moaning mess.

He pulled away from your nipple to grin at your state. You looked at him breathlessly, grinning, "Is that all you've got, Lantsov."

His stare turned dark. He dove down and buried himself in your pussy. He licked and nipped, flicking your clit with his tongue. He played you like a well-tuned instrument. He fucked your hole with his tongue - alternating between stroking your walls with his tongue and sucking on your clit.

Your orgasm washed over you unexpectedly, sending waves of pleasure through your veins. You clamped your thighs around Nikolai's head, throwing your head back as you cried out.

Nikolai lifted his head up, eyes glinting dangerously, wetness smeared all around his lips. He looked devious. In that moment, he was not Nikolai Lantsov, spare to the Lantsov name, but Sturmhond, masterful privateer, Captain of Volkvolny. You loved him for it.

"You've caused me a lot of trouble, Mouse."

"What are you going to do about it?" You bit your lip, hiding a smirk.

He threw his coat off, carrying you towards his bed. You were lucky that no one else was on board - if they heard what was going on you'd never live it down.

Nikolai laid you on the bed, stripping his clothes off at extraordinary speed. He was quickly inside you, eliciting whimpers from you at every movement. He gave you a moment to adjust before he started to thrust. His hips snapped into you at an ungodly pace and it was all that you could do to not fall apart on his cock.

Nikolai grinned at your silence, his eyes scanning over you. Your face was blissed out, eyes rolling to the back of your head every so often. Sweat glistened on your skin, as you rocked forwards at the force of his every thrust. He couldn't help the small praises that fell from his lips as you moaned lowly.

"Look at you, so fucking beautiful under me, spread out for me like a whore. That's what you are, my beautiful little whore." You moaned at the filth dripping out of his mouth, "What's wrong, sweetheart? Have I fucked the little mouse stupid? No words left to taunt me now, huh?" You moaned softly, your mouth almost stuck in the shape of an 'O'. "Maybe I should do this more often, keep you quiet for longer." You nodded your head, head too foggy to come up with another smart-ass response.

Your second and third orgasms crashed over you in quick succession - Nikolai clamped his hand over your mouth as you screamed 'Nikolai' over and over again. He promised that next time he'd fuck that name out of your brain, before pulling out and cumming all over your chest.

You lay on his bed - dazed from the intense fucking you just received. You were surprised to find yourself alone in Nikolai's bed - he'd disappeared moments after cumming. He'd said something but you were still coming down from your last high when he moved away. You began to spiral. Of course, he was only fucking you to teach you a lesson - why else would he be interested in you? You idiot! He's the prince of fucking Ravka and the Captain of this ship. What do you have that would interest him, apart from your bratty mouth and attitude? He said it himself - the attitude pissed him off.

You were startled when something cold made contact with your chest. You looked up to find Nikolai with something in his hand - a wet washcloth, maybe? - and a sheepish grin on his face. He was still naked, his hair still tousled and his face still flushed. An involuntary beam broke out across your face. He didn't leave you after all.

Nikolai was taken by surprise at the tears that gathered on your lash line. He pulled you up into his chest when you were clean, sitting on the edge of his bed with you held tightly in his arms.

"Hey, hey, hey." He said, drawing mindless shapes on your back as tears streamed down your face, "What's wrong? Did I hurt you?" He was confused - surely, if he hurt you, you wouldn't be seeking comfort in him.

His heart slowed slightly when you shook your head, but the confusion remained.

"Talk to me, Mouse. What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

"It's stupid."

"It's not. If it matters to you, then it matters to me. Tell me, whatever it is, I'll fix it." Another wave of emotion washed over you. You climbed into his lap and he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into his chest.

"I thought you were mad." You whispered quietly, almost hoping he wouldn't hear you and that he would let it go.

"Why would I be mad?"

"You left." You shrugged, "You left and I thought you were gone for good." He pressed a kiss to your temple and pulled your head into his chest.

"Oh, Mouse. For all your genius, you are oblivious." You looked up at him, confused. "I love you, Mouse. I always have." You shook your head, "What?"

"You're just saying that." You said, tears filling your lash line again as you tried to pull away, "You're just saying that 'cause you fucked me and you don't want me to leave." You tried to move out of his arms but he held you firmly. You hit his chest, trying to force yourself off him, but he stood his ground. Eventually, you just melted into his arms - he held you as you cried, hands stroking your hair soothingly.

You calmed down slowly, chest heaving as you tried to replenish your lungs. You stayed relaxed in his arms. He laid his head on top of yours. "Wanna tell me what that was about?"

You shook your head.

"Do you trust me?"

You nodded your head.

"Do you trust me enough to believe me when I say I love you?"

You hesitated.

"Well, we've found our problem."

"You don't love me."

"How do you know? You been inside my head? Pretty sure even Grisha can't do that." You chuckled.

"You hate me. You can't even look at me - let alone talk to me for long enough to fall in love with me."

"I can't look at you because if I start looking I'll never look away. I can't talk to you because I look like a fool every time I try and string two words together in front of you. Ask Tolya - he'll tell you how hopelessly in love with you I am. And for someone who's not interested in romance, he's a fucking hopeless romantic." His words involuntarily brought a smile onto your face.

You looked into his eyes, "You're sure you love me?"

"Honey, you drive me wild."

You nestled into his arms, and he leaned you both back onto the bed. Your head hit his pillow and suddenly you're surrounded by him. His arms wrap around you tightly, his pillow smells like him, his face is right next to yours. It's nice. Comforting.

You looked up into his face, studying his features while he slept. He was pretty - objectively. His face was long - pointy. Someone had done a terrible job of fixing his broken nose - but it seemed off at a second glance. He seemed so different than the paintings in the gallery - more difference than age alone could bring. His eyes were the giveaway - they were muddy green at first glance but under the right light and if you stared long enough, they were the same hazel green as the ones in the painting. You reached up to stroke his face. How long would this all last? How long until he wouldn't be able to play pretend anymore? How long until he had to go back to being Prince Nikolai Lantsov of Ravka? How long did you have with him in this beautiful bubble that you had created? You could already hear the rest of the crew filtering in from their nights out.

A hand came up to wrap around yours, "Sleep, Mouse. I'll still be here in the morning."

You smiled. He'd still be here in the morning.

fin.

#grishaverse #nikolai lantsov #netflix shadow and bone #nikolai lantsov fluff #nikolai lantsov x reader #nikolai lantsov being kind #nikolai lantsov fanfic #nikolai lantsov imagines #nikolai lantsov my beloved #nikolai lantsov x you #no y/n #shadow and bone #shadow and bone fanfic #nikolai x reader #siege and storm #nikolai lantsov imagine #shadow and bone x reader

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perseephoneee · 28 days ago

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first time w/ Benedict Bridgerton pretty please 🙈 for your kinktober

kinktober 3 (benedict bridgerton x f!reader)

↳ masterlist ↳ ship exchange ↳ taglist ↳ kinktober masterlist

content warnings: more of a drabble, public place, unprotected, sex before marriage (gasp!)

a/n: so you're probably wondering where i went! the gist is last week one of my best friends texted me that she wanted to talk but then postponed the talk for several days later (so i spent all of the week in anxiety). when we finally did talk, it was for her to say that she a) wasn't interested in hearing from me and b) that she wouldn't offer explanations and then basically broke up with me :) so I've spent most of the past several days sobbing. anyway, this is short and I'll be uploading prompt 4 as well today.

You were never good at following the rules. If you were, Benedict probably would’ve never noticed you, and you wouldn’t be in this situation. If you hadn’t been stealing food off of plates and sticking your tongue out at noblewomen as they turned away, Benedict wouldn’t have found you amusing and sought you out. You both wouldn’t have entered into a tenuous friendship and wouldn’t find yourself in a dark room with the second eldest Bridgerton, kissing like your life depended on it.

You were a scandal waiting to happen, that you were aware, but you couldn’t seem to care. His lips tasted of champagne, and his hands were gripping your waist, one dropping down to bunch up the skirts of your dress. He brought your leg up, letting himself press closer. There wasn’t a part of you that wasn’t touching, yet you yearned for more.

“Ben,” you breathed, breaking apart. “Take off my gown.” Benedict paused, looking at you with caution. “Are you sure? You’re an unmarried woman—”

“Who you have pulled into a dark room to fornicate with, we are past the pleasantries of society, and all I want is you,” you said, brushing your thumb over his cheek, your expression softening. “If you still want me, that is.”

“Darling,” Benedict grinned. “You’re all I want.”

He kissed you again, so much more tender than the fiery passion of before. He spun you around, making quick work of your gown and corset so you were left in your undergarments. Your fingers trembled as you undid his jerkin and tunic, but he covered your hand with his and helped you. You breathed out as his skin was revealed to you. You leaned in, kissing over his collarbone and the column of his throat. You felt Benedict take in a deep breath, hands grasping your hair as you kissed his neck. You started to resent that women were denied such a pleasure until marriage. Benedict pulled your head back, kissing you again, all tongue and teeth. You sighed, so lost in him that you weren’t fully aware of his hand bunching up your slip and brushing over your clothed mound.

“Drenched already,” Benedict chuckled. Your heart was beating fast as fingers dipped beneath the fabric. You let out a choked sound as he touched parts of you that had never been caressed that way before. Benedict helped hold you up as you felt yourself melt in his arms, the circular motions of his fingers sending tingles throughout your body. He lightly pushed a finger inside of you, going slowly as you adjusted to the foreign feeling. Your eyes were squeezed shut as you panted, Benedict caressing every inch of you as he whispered sweet nothings in your ear. His breath was hot against your skin, and you were overwhelmed as a sudden feeling crashed over you. Everything in your body tightened and crested. You bit down on Benedict’s shoulder as you came, muffling the cry of his name for fear of someone finding you. He slowed, and when he removed his fingers, licking them clean with a wink, you recognized that there was never going to be anyone else for you than him. He brushed some of the loose hair away from your face. “Do you still want me?”

“Yes, very much so,” you sighed, lungs still remembering how to breathe. Benedict undid the ties on his trousers, picking you up and wrapping your legs around his waist. You let the wall hold your weight as he carefully pushed into you, letting out a shaky breath in the process. You bit your lip as you got used to the feeling of him, and he was kind enough not to move until you were ready. As he felt your muscles relax around him, he started to push in and out of you slowly. Benedict buried his face in your neck, whispering praises as he tried to control himself from taking you too roughly. You gripped his shoulders, wrapping your arms around his neck as you tried to stifle your moans. When you came the second time, it was much more sudden, and you wrapped yourself around Benedict so you wouldn’t fall, fall, fall. Benedict came soon after you, cursing softly as you felt yourself become infinitely full. You loathed when he had to separate from you, kissing your forehead and cheek with the softness of a lover.

“I should probably ask for your hand in marriage now,” Benedict chuckled.

“Yes, I suppose you should, Lord Bridgerton,” you smiled coyly, kissing him so and feeling thankful that you wouldn’t be spending any more days without him.

#kinktober #kinktober 2024 #benedict bridgerton #benedict bridgerton x reader #bridgerton #my writing

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mephistopheleswasrobbed · 1 month ago

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We're at episode eight (two thrirds through already. how?!). It seems my prayers have been answered and after weeks, I was finally not left scrambling to pick up my organs that had fallen out of various orifices at the shock of how the episode ended. (dude, if they had ended the episode with Home flatlining my hair might have spontaneously turned completely gray from stress)

Anyway I'm back to not so seriously tell you about all the things in this episode that reinforced my belief that Home and Peach love each other. Let's go!

Home starts crying at the mere mention of Peach's name. With absolutely no alcohol needed to ease the flow of his tears.

No one is questioning for a second what/who is motivating Home's ghost into action. Because it's clear to whom his strongest attachment is.

The revival ritual call's for something Home loves and the only thing they can come up with is Peach('s cooking).

And Peach is willing to be completely unhinged and illegally cook in a hospital for a chance to get Home back.

And they were right. It works. The smell of Peach's cooking does actually lead Home back to his body. (until the stuggle with security rips the string off Home's finger)

Back when Home first stayed over with Peach and Pangpang, he was bickering with Peach over the amount of chillies in Peach's cooking.

And Pangpang filmed them and made ship edits with it. And is now using that to prove to Peach that Home loves his cooking. (And making up quotes to go with it, but Peach was fully ready to believe that Home could have said that and he was flatterd about it too, so.)

Of course this is where Home's limbo is. In the place that he claimed for himself, finally made into a proper home by the presence of Peach and Pangpang that's visible all over it.

Grandpa is, aside from Peach, Pangpang and Home, themselves, possibly the only other person who understands just how much they have come to mean to each other. He must be glad that his grandson has finally found his "home".

After Home flatlines Peach is sobbing and begging at his bedside clutching his arm. And I'm not saying you wouldn't do that with your friend but this is clearly romance coded. (Are his cries what led Home back to his body in the end, because Peach is something he loves and he's still inside the thread circle and even though the thread isn't attached to his finger anymore maybe it's still working because Peach is surely touching his fingers or maybe it's because of the heart monitor finger clip thingy that's attached at the same side that somehow counts? Who knows. I'm not familiar with the rules of this religious/spiritual practice)

And then Home, who thought that no one would want him alive anyway, walks in and sees Peach begging him to wake up and Pangpang on the floor looking shell shocked and he realises that despite everything he is loved and at the same time it must break his heart to see his family like this because of him.

But he eats Peach's food and that brings him back to life and Peach is still holding on to him

So Home can finally do what he's been trying to for the last episodes.

The last thing Home wanted to do before he died, the first thing he does once he's back to life. He finally apologises to Peach. (And I feel a little smug about it because Home waking up with Peach at his bedside and the first thing he says is "I'm sorry" is exactly how I imagined/hoped it would happen and I'm glad I was right)

And after he has finally said the words out loud, Peach hugs him and they hug for 24 seconds of showtime but we cut to a new scene before they stop so in the story they probably stayed like that for a long time and eventually Pangpang joined in and their little family was finally back together.

But also the way Peach is holding on to Home like he's never letting him go again and

the hand on the neck?!

the thumb on the ear?! Please, they are so clearly in love with each other.

Peach has brought back the "More than friends - less than lovers" shirt to celebrate them getting back together (though he thinks he's sneaky and can hide it with this somewhat out of place looking plaid jaket-shirt-thing) And it's the first time he's worn it in Home's presence (the last time was at the beginning of ep 5 when he had the nightmare about chef hong's death, so only Pangpang saw him in it)

And Peach, for lack of clothing options to signal his feelings, is left to look at Peach with absolute heart eyes.

Lesbian Corner

is still not experiencing an abundance of moments. But it was, of course, Pangpang who noted that another member of their family was still missing.

(And despite their best efforts to cast suspicion onto Kan, I don't think she'd try to kill Home. She did seem worried about him and defended him against the car mechanic. But we'll see next week, I guess)

#peaceful property #peaceful property the series #i'm so glad we got a break from the cliffhangers punching us in the face this week #just want to reiterate here: this post is not intended to be completely serious and also #i think it would be completely fine if the show never “confirmes” peach and home to be in a relationship.#that wouldn't negate everything they've done to show how much they love each other #their relationship wouldn't become any more or less “serious” if they kiss at the end

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bestworstcase · 2 days ago

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So, it should be obvious to anyone paying attention or taking this seriously by now that Whiterose isn't happening. And I mean, they wouldn't really fit with what the show is going for anyways, with romantic relationships, no Ozlem fractals and all that. But it does stick out like a sore thumb, that within RWBY and JNPR they're the only pair of partners where it's not a thing. And I'm curious if you make anything of it, from an out-of-universe perspective, on why that's the case?

well for one thing, i think the conceptual basis for any ship being "well the other three major character academic pairs developed into romantic interests" is a de facto admission of non-canonicity in itself, and betrays a fundamental disinterest in character and narrative. this is perhaps not surprising, as i'm given to understand people have been shipping wr literally since the color trailers, which is to say that the core appeal has always been aesthetics.

full disclosure, my personal feeling is that wr is "man and woman breathed near each other one time!?" for sapphics. it's gay ruby/jaune. the ship isn't sunk, it's dry-docked.

in that sense, the out-of-universe perspective i have to offer is: the difference between ruby/weiss and arkos / renora / the bees is that the latter three were written with romantic intent from the start whereas ruby and weiss were not. i'll grant the possibility that the academic pairings were an inelegant plot device motivated by that romantic intention, but i don't in fact believe that is the case because the one/two/four motif is such a thematic workhorse for the contortions and distortions of ozpin's psyche; i think pairing the romantic partners was at most a secondary consideration. in any case, there is no rule dictating that every academic pair must eventually kiss. that's nonsense.

now. in the more specific sense of "why do these two characters in particular not go together" i think there are two reasons.

first, it's narratively important for ruby to be isolated. she's two years younger and left all her friends behind to enroll in beacon early and her big sister isn't and can't be her mom anymore and she gets paired up with an academic overachiever who initially treats her like an idiot baby who doesn't deserve the responsibility she's been given. ruby surmounts each of these challenges by remaking herself into their serious, competent, trustworthy leader and crucially this does not address, but in fact reinforces, her alienation from the rest of the team.

second, both ruby and weiss are profoundly sheltered and lonely girls raised in environments, denied close relationships with anyone but their elder sisters whom they both grew to idolize, and became, in contrasting but fundamentally similar ways, really good at performing the "right" behaviors—ruby adopting a happy, carefree mask, weiss becoming an overachieving perfectionist obsessed with her family's honor.

the point is, a) neither have ever had a real, emotionally close friendship before, and b) both have a deeply-ingrained tendency to Perform To Expectation. in this i think it is instructive to compare the conflict and resolution between weiss and ruby vs weiss and blake:

blake directly and overtly challenges weiss on her awful behavior until the brick wall of regurgitated bigotry breaks down and weiss starts to talk about the real emotional pain behind that wall, and blake reveals her own secret and then flees in distress, with the result that weiss has to face and think about the pain she's caused to someone she cares about and actually reflect on things blake said to her for a while. and then when they come face-to-face again weiss stops blake from anxiously trying to apologize / explain / appease her and says no, i thought about it, i trust you, you don't owe me any of that. she doesn't say the words "i'm sorry" but her actions demonstrate real understanding and empathy for blake.

meanwhile her conflict with ruby tears down ruby's self-confidence, ultimately leaving ruby receptive to ozpin's extremely destructive advice, and ends because port dresses weiss down and lays out for her in plain terms that her envy and resentment reflect poorly on her, whereafter weiss commits to becoming "the best teammate [ruby will] ever have."

spot the difference. the conflict between weiss and blake fosters a deeper, lasting emotional connection between them chiefly because they're fighting with each other—there's this back-and-forth, give-and-take that drives a resolution from within. weiss has to reflect on herself and decide that what she believed about faunuskind is wrong. and the. she has to decide for herself how to make it right. but that's not what happens in the conflict between weiss and ruby! weiss is just being a bully and gets told by a teacher she respects to knock it off!

and then little miss overachieving perfectionist pivots to "i will be the perfect teammate!" while the lesson ruby takes from this experience, courtesy of ozpin, is that she deserved to be treated that way because she didn't take her duties as the team leader seriously enough. she puts on a happy face and pretends nothing hurts because that's who ruby is, but the resolution here is very much just papering over the cracks.

not to say that ruby and weiss aren't truly friends and don't care deeply for each other, because they are and they do, but the foundation of this friendship is very brittle. on the surface, they appear as virtually the platonic ideal of what huntsman academy partners are meant to be—an unlikely pair who overcame enormous personal differences to become inseparable comrades-in-arms—but that is in large part because ruby's skill in masking problems harmonizes so well with weiss's drive to be the perfect huntsman academy partner.

but they're really not that close! it's a meme at this point for wr shippers to bemoan the dearth of "moments" between ruby and weiss, but that is by design. these are two girls who've never had a really close friendship before performing close friendship with each other almost flawlessly until the wheels very suddenly and violently fall off in v9, whereupon weiss—who is otherwise an empathetic and emotionally insightful person—realizes this hollowness and reflects on her treatment of ruby just as she did with blake back in v1. her perfect partnership has been an emotional burden to ruby this whole time, and she has to face that head-on before it can be fixed.

i think they're probably headed for a serious "we're combat partners who fight well together and get along, but are we actually friends?" kind of reckoning that will undoubtedly resolve in the direction of building real closeness, because maybe they're not as close as they believed but they want to have that kind of friendship.

which is like. you know. interesting. the core problem i have with wr fanon and the general insistence in that contingent of the fandom is that the apparent ideal-partnership is Real and trust me, they're totally in love, we're just meant to understand that they're having heart-to-heart conversations and emotionally vulnerable moments with each other off-screen all the time, the complete absence of this in the text is only because the narrative doesn't have the time—as if the narrative hasn't carved out time for arkos and renora and the bees and ruby/oscar, as if it wasn't a deliberate choice to contrast weiss getting scolded for bullying ruby against weiss empathizing and sharing childhood traumas and deep fears and cherished aspirations with blake and yang. like. come on.

the point is that things were "resolved" between ruby and weiss by external pressures that did not foster any real understanding between them, and then nothing ever changed. weiss' friendships with blake and yang pushed her to grow, to mature, but until v9 she and ruby were coasting on that "good leader/perfect teammate" dynamic, stagnant for ruby and a blindspot for weiss.

and this is the narrative reason why ruby and weiss had to be paired during the initiation. looking at it through the lens of "pairing the romantic partners (and the sore thumb of ruby and weiss)" misses the forest for the shipper goggles tree: the academic pairings are the inciting incident for each main character arc. for jaune, it's the first stroke of the ozlem fractal and the tragedy that motivates the rest of his story. for ren and nora, it's the safety of a comfort zone they'll eventually need to leave. for blake and yang, it's finding each other for the first time. for weiss, it's the mistake that will fester until it comes back to bite her to put all her growth in the interim to the test. for ruby, it's the painful experience that pushes her to take on self-sacrificial heroism as her duty.

it's just a device for establishing character pairs that will facilitate long-term development. that three of the four can be grouped together loosely as romantic arcs doesn't inherently mean anything for the one that isn't; to suggest otherwise is to collapse the differences between arkos / renora / the bees (and also ignore the goliath in the room of arkos not being endgame) and imagine a rule where there just isn't one.

for the sake of completeness i will add that coco/velvet is canon and the CFVY novels make a point of them not being academic partners.

#with apologies to the wr shippers in the audience i just think that ships should be interesting

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downbadf0rficppl · 10 months ago

Text

still be here in the morning?

Nikolai Lantsov x F!Reader

Summary: You drive Nikolai wild. You want him to see you, to see you, but you're scared. If you give in to your desires and you let yourself fall, will he still be there in the morning?

Word Count: 2.9K

Warnings: SMUTTY SMUT, LOTS OF SMUT, lots of teasing, a lil bit of angst, and some fluff. Also the reader's nickname is Mouse - but it's not a size thing, it's an occupation thing *thumbs up emoji*

Repost

You had teased him about it on a brief visit to West Ravka - an old family painting had given it all away.

"Well, Tolya and I spent most of our afternoon in the galleries in Os Kervo-"

"I'm aware."

"Stop interrupting me!" You swatted him with a loose piece of paper on his desk, "It's rude. You'd have thought that you had some manners - what with your pretentious nature."

"Is there a point to this, Mouse? Because I suggest you get there soon."

Nikolai moved swiftly, clamping his hand down over your mouth. "Does Tolya know?"

You move his hand off your mouth, "Of course not. I'm not one to be going around spreading rumours that are not mine to spread."

"Good. And you're going to keep it that way. Especially if you want to stay on this ship."

After that day, your teasing had increased ten-fold and Nikolai's patience with you had decreased just as much. He hardly spoke to you if he didn't have orders to give you. And it pissed you off.

"Awhh, don't look too happy to see me, Sturmhond. Or should I say, Nikolai?" You'd taken to teasing him in the privacy of his room, where you were sure no one could hear you.

"What do you want, Mouse?"

"I just wanted to see how my dear Majesty was holding up. It has been a rough week for us all."

"Cut the bullshit. I know you're here to piss me off. Not tonight, Mouse. Please."

"Ooh. I like it when you beg. Do it again." You grinned at him. You knew you were getting under his skin.

"Make me."

"I'm sorry, what?" Nikolai said, turning around to face you again.

"I said, make me, Lantsov."

"I told you to stop fucking using that name," Nikolai growled, pushing you up against the wall, his arm pushing under your boob. You flushed pink, heat pooling in your stomach.

Nikolai grinned, "Oh, I see." He looked you up and down, scanning your figure. You could feel your underwear soak with every second of his gaze.

"Are you sure it's not what you wanted Captain? You seem to be a lot more excited by this than I am."

Nikolai nearly growled at that, attaching his lips to yours again, before slipping your belt off. He slipped his hands down to your core, feeling the wetness and smirking.

"Not as excited as me, huh?" He rubbed a circle around your clit and watched your defenses crumble. You grabbed a fistful of his jacket in your hand as your hips bucked away from him.

He pulled away from your nipple to grin at your state. You looked at him breathlessly, grinning, "Is that all you've got, Lantsov."

Your orgasm washed over you unexpectedly, sending waves of pleasure through your veins. You clamped your thighs around Nikolai's head, throwing your head back as you cried out.

"You've caused me a lot of trouble, Mouse."

"What are you going to do about it?" You bit your lip, hiding a smirk.

He threw his coat off, carrying you towards his bed. You were lucky that no one else was on board - if they heard what was going on you'd never live it down.

Nikolai was taken by surprise at the tears that gathered on your lash line. He pulled you up into his chest when you were clean, sitting on the edge of his bed with you held tightly in his arms.

His heart slowed slightly when you shook your head, but the confusion remained.

"Talk to me, Mouse. What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

"It's stupid."

"I thought you were mad." You whispered quietly, almost hoping he wouldn't hear you and that he would let it go.

"Why would I be mad?"

"You left." You shrugged, "You left and I thought you were gone for good." He pressed a kiss to your temple and pulled your head into his chest.

"Oh, Mouse. For all your genius, you are oblivious." You looked up at him, confused. "I love you, Mouse. I always have." You shook your head, "What?"

You calmed down slowly, chest heaving as you tried to replenish your lungs. You stayed relaxed in his arms. He laid his head on top of yours. "Wanna tell me what that was about?"

You shook your head.

"Do you trust me?"

You nodded your head.

"Do you trust me enough to believe me when I say I love you?"

You hesitated.

"Well, we've found our problem."

"You don't love me."

"How do you know? You been inside my head? Pretty sure even Grisha can't do that." You chuckled.

"You hate me. You can't even look at me - let alone talk to me for long enough to fall in love with me."

You looked into his eyes, "You're sure you love me?"

"Honey, you drive me wild."

A hand came up to wrap around yours, "Sleep, Mouse. I'll still be here in the morning."

You smiled. He'd still be here in the morning.

fin.

buy me a coffee

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vanmarkus · 5 months ago

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wow okay i say that as someone who ships both couples, but way to take a minority of people and saying that the biggest group should be punished for it and to include everyone together... Especially when these comments on official publications are on insta and twitter, and you're bringing them on tumblr.

It's so funny because every time someone use that argument, all the nasty comments by fans of bucktommy don't seem to matter, and the whole group of fans don't need to be punished because of them.

okay i'm "bringing them to tumblr" by talking about what's going on? by having conversations about what is actually going on? the 1300+ comments that are largely just saying "buddie canon" (which fair enough who cares) and "tommy dead september 24" "hope he dies and gets stung" "hope he gets shot" and so on and so forth... like you can say it's a minority of the fandom, but they are loud as fuck for sure.

and yeah, i said what i said. i don't want dickish little children thinking that this behaviour will get them what they want, that being homophobic and a bully over a fucking fictional character who for all we know might be like in 4 episodes next season? or none? or just who really cares, cuz he's still not fucking real.

like yeah, if you don't want the majority to be "punished" because of their behaviour, then maybe call it out? not just dismiss it with whataboutism of how "well the bucktommys said mean things too" and "well we used to be misogynistic towards LIs before, so we can be homophobic to LIs now" as some people have recently tried to.

i'm sure they did say mean things. and i probably blocked them for it too. though, talk about minorities...

anyway. maybe a good rule of thumb would be to 1) call out shitty people regardless of which fictional men they wanna see date each other and 2) understand what the conversation is actually about; which in this case is me saying that it's a shame this behaviour is happening and my personal wish is that it's being nipped in the bud and not be rewarded.

cuz i genuinely care more about the show and shitty people getting their karma, than who Evan Buckley is fucking, respectively.

#i am getting heated over this shit and i want to clarify that it is about the real people being dicks #and not the fictional people doing nothing cuz they don't exist smh #911 #911 abc #ask #anon

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ryn-loves-cheese · 1 year ago

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Hi! ৻(•̀ ᗜ •́ ৻)⊹｡ Welcome to my tumblr page! I’m Ryn I go by they/them! And I’m pansexual/demiromantic

fandoms I draw for:

•demon slayer

•jujutsu Kaisen

•spyxfamily

•sk8 infinity

•Tokyo revengers(haven’t finished the show yet)

•httyd

•the owl house

•mincraft

•the Magnus archives(haven’t finished the podcast yet)

•DND

•hazbin hotel

•sky: children of light

•Ramshackle

•bungo stray dogs

•Sanrio

•Luigi’s mansion

•Pokémon

•Kirby

•Arcane

•splatoon

•doctor who

•the apocathary diaries (haven’t finished the show yet)

•yaeklore

•castle

•house MD

•bones

•gravity falls

•the outsiders

[REQUESTS ARE OPEN, no ocs right now sorry]

☀️I TAKE ART REQUESTS☀️I can’t promise I’ll get to them but if you have any do send bc my ass always has art block- ill be doing two at a time at most

I will draw your ocs or any characters I’m okay with ships but i can say no if I’m uncomfortable with the ship that also goes for any other drawing I can refuse if I’m uncomfortable

Things I’m ok with:

oc x oc

oc x canon character (no minor x adults)

Canon character x canon character (DEPENDING ON THE SHIP)

Chibi characters

Regular animals: parrots, cats, dogs, lizards, snakes, fish, tigers, chickens, anything like that

food

mild gore or candy gore

any of the things on that list I will draw :]

Things I’M NOT OKAY with drawing! You will be blocked if you ask for some of these things! (Also this is a DNI list for some things):

proshipping(minor x adult) -immediate block don’t bother following me

racist or homophobic or transphobic don’t follow me istg

NSFW

heavy and graphic gore

Anthro/furries (i don’t have a issue with them i just don’t know how to draw them)

mechanical or mecha stuff (idk how to draw this)

any depiction of ‘Yandere’ or unhealthy toxic relationships that shits not welcome here

‼️this should also be clarified i will NOT draw ANY nsfw or suggestive material i may make jokes but don’t ask it of me i don’t mind blogs with mildly suggestive material follow me along as its not straight up nsfw. I’ve seen a few blogs like that follow me but general rule of thumb here DNI if you are a blog that has graphic nsfw art or material it’s just weird I’m a minor it’s not hard to understand you’ll be blocked :3 Ty for reading‼️

this is my oc ryn!

my moots/freinds :]

@bin-s0 (lovely artist and very sweet :] and my bf they are literally one of my favourite people 🩷🩷🩷)

@boo-simplified (also a banger artist and a very wonderful friend i know them irl and they are so goddamn nice✨)

@mercurymaceo ( EDIBLE ART. Need I say more! And a very close friend ⭐️✨)

@kimetsu-chan (LITERALLY SO SWEET OMG 💖💖very pretty art and a good writer)

@thesilliersakura (ART IS VERY SILLY AND ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS and very silly freind)

@swisscheeselovers-blog (he is another close irl friend of mine dose some silly doodles once and a while. SO FUNNY ONG very goofy and silly friend 🫶💖)

@shycroissanti (some more edible art has one of the silliest ocs ever and is so nice!)

@clownpalette (ART IS SO SILLY AND CUTE!!!)

@aceofstars0 (so sweet makes some SCRUMPTIOUS ART- I wanna eat it please follow them :] )

@rion-isnot-an-ai (yet another underrated artist who is also very nice! Makes lovely art!)

@silas-png (bro im bouta eat your art if you’re not careful THE RENDERING THEY DO IS JUST 😭💖✨🤌)

@pearlymoonn (OMG they are so nice iv spoke with them before and they’re lovely fncndhshchvu they make very cute art!)

@scrimblyscrorblo (very silly doodles iv spoken with them a couple of times and i absolutely adore they’re art its so goofy and cute and are also very nice 🫶)

@delirious-dan (THE ART <3 so good and they are very silly and cool)

ANYWAY VERY SILLY MOOTS GO FOLLOW EM :D

thanks for reading and welcome to my blog :]

divider creds to:

@cafekitsune

my art tag is #Ryn’s art 💜

#artists on tumblr #hello #blog #tumblog

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kokichis-dead-dove-club · 4 months ago

Note

Bear i came to tell you that your blog has been the reason i stopped being an anti like a few years ago. So i was always a bit of a hypocrite back in my anti days one of my core memories include writing a wattpad rant chapter on how people shipping abuse is evil and how warrior cats smut is illegal and ruining my life while i had warrior cat rule 34 open on another tab. I justified it as that I was just inspecting it you know studying the enemy's moves. One day I was on tumblr and I stumbled upon a firetiger blocklist(??) and my mind blew I didn't know there were so many of them I thought that was like a rare thing that died out in 2015 and people have officially stopped shipping any problematic pairings since then because I haven't seen it and because I haven't seen it personally that means it doesn't exist. Anyway I clicked on ur blog and scrolled down the wc/art tag and I thought it was just so cool especially the bramblehawk pieces (of course as I was looking with great interest I periodically shook my head dissaprovingly in order to signal that I Did Not Endorse). Which has done something to me. After a few days my brain was permanently rewired just by those posts existing. There was no character arc. I was just an anti one day then I woke up tomorrow and decided I'll just simply stop and shipcest sounds fun as hell and that was just it I literally don't remember having any inner conflict about that. I just stopped and started drawing holly and ash kissing. So yeah thank you for the apparently incredibly powerful and life-changing wc art (scrolling down ur blog rn and it still looks cool as hell. thumbs up emoji i am on laptop <3)

holy shit i have never been given a bigger honor in my entire LIFE i'm printing this ask out and framing it

i'm so glad my bramblehawk ravings Changed You 🫡 💖

#also if u have a windows laptop u can do emojis on it by holding down the windows key and pressing the period key #thats what i do #shipcest mention tw #i need a tag to save this in forever.#uhhhhhhh #hall of fame #?#hgjsdjfgsdfg

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countrymusiclover · 4 months ago

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30 - King in the North

Part 31

The Lion Knight and Dragon Princess

Tags- just send an ask to be added @cdragons @kmc1989 @starkleila @noirrose21-blog @lover-of-books-and-tea

Tyrion, Jaime and I were standing with some of my sister's soldiers and her advisor watching a small ship coming up to shore. Tyrion smiled at a man with thick black hair tied back in a bun. “The bastard of Winterfell.”

“The dwarf of Casterly Rock.” The strange man nodded his head to the dwarf.

Tyrion extended his hand to him. “I believe we last saw each other atop the Wall.”

“You were pissing off the edge if I remember right. Picked up some scars along the road.” He shook his hand.

Tyrion glanced between me and Jaime seeing Jon’s partner that had stepped foot on the island. “It's been a long road, but we're both still here. I'm Tyrion Lannister, this is my brother Jaime and his wife Vaella Targaryen.”

“Davos Seaworth.” The elderly man introduced himself.

The youngest Lannister remarked. “Ah, the Onion Knight. We fought on opposite sides at the Battle of Blackwater Bay.”

“Unluckily for me.” Davos said back to him.

Jon sent a slight glare to my husband. “Your son killed my father.”

“He did, yes.” Jaime nervously answered.

Stepping forward in front of the two boys I introduced myself to the Northern man knowing the conversation could go even more tense the longer it went on between them. “Jon Snow, my name is Vaella Targaryen, now Lannister. I know you have Ill feelings towards my husband but I hope once you get to know him and I that you’re opinion will change.” Jon simply nodded his head at me with no verbal reply.

Tyrion turned his head to the taller dark skin woman. “Missandei is the queen's most trusted advisor.”

“Welcome to Dragonstone. Our queen knows it is a long journey. She appreciates the efforts you have made on her behalf. If you wouldn't mind handing over your weapons.” Her advisor explained and our entire group made our way up the long steps in the direction of the Dragonstone castle.

Tyrion and Jon were walking in front of me and Jaime giving me the opportunity to listen into their conversation. “Sansa? I hear she's alive and well.”

“She is.”

He asked his other friend. “Does she miss me terribly? A sham marriage. And unconsummated.”

“I didn't ask.”

Poking Tyrion in the back with my index finger I couldn’t resist teasing him about the eldest Stark daughter. “You like her don’t you?”

“She’s a wonderful girl who was tormented by horrible people.” My friend replied to my question.

Jaime smirked down at me the second the words left my mouth. “You slept with her didn’t you?”

“It was. Wasn't.” Tyrion glared back at me. “Darn you, Vae! Why would you ask me that?”

Unable to hold back my laughter, a huge grin graced my face. “Because you wouldn’t have asked about her if you didn’t care about her.”

“Anyway... she's much smarter than she lets on.” Tyrion cleared his throat to change the conversation.

Jon spoke up. “She's starting to let on.”

“At some point, I want to hear how a Night's Watch recruit became King in the North.” Tyrion eyed the taller man beside him.

“As long as you tell me how a Lannister became Hand to Daenerys Targaryen.”

Tyrion dryly chuckled. “A long and bloody tale. To be honest, I was drunk for most of it.”

Jon glanced back at me still trying to figure me out. “How exactly have you been alive all this time? We were told everyone in the Targaryen line had been wiped out.”

Tucking hair behind my ear. “It’s a long story but let’s just say I owe my life to this one.” Looping my arm through Jaime’s I laid my head on his shoulder while we kept walking behind them.

“My bannermen think I'm a fool for coming here.”

The dwarf concealed his friend. “Of course they do. If I was your Hand, I would have advised against it. General rule of thumb-- Stark men don't fare well when they travel south.”

“True... but I'm not a Stark.” Hearing a dragon shrieking above our heads causing Jon and Davos to drop to the ground seeing a huge smile grace my face watching one of my sisters dragons fly up to the top of the castle.

Tyrion offered his hand helping Jon up from the stone ground escorting him inside the castle with the rest of us following in toe. “I'd say you get used to them... but you never really do.”

MISSANDEI introduces my sister while Jaime and I stood in the corner of the room by her throne just watching. “You stand in the presence of Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, rightful heir to the Iron Throne, rightful Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains.”

“This is Jon Snow. He's King in the North.” Ser Davos gave him a much shorter introduction.

Daenerys nods to him. “Thank you for traveling so far, my lord. I hope the seas weren't too rough.”

“The winds were kind, Your Grace.”

Davos corrected her. “Apologies, I have a Flea Bottom accent, I know, but Jon Snow is King in the North, Your Grace.”

“Your Grace, this is Ser Davos Seaworth.” Tyrion noticed my sisters confused expression.

“Forgive me, Ser Davos. I never did receive a formal education, but I could have sworn I read the last King in the North was Torrhen Stark, who bent the knee to my ancestor, Aegon Targaryen. In exchange for his life and the lives of the Northmen, Torrhen Stark swore fealty to House Targaryen in perpetuity. Or do I have my facts wrong?”

Davos shrugged. “I wasn't there, Your Grace.”

“No, of course not. But still, an oath is an oath. And perpetuity means-- what does perpetuity mean, Lord Tyrion?” She eyes my friend.

“Forever.” Tyrion replied.

She focused back on Jon Snow. “So I assume, my lord...you're here to bend the knee.”

“I am not.” Jon uttered where the color in my face went almost white as a ghost and Jaime sucked in a nervous breath. We knew better than him not to defy her, hell the only reason we weren’t still fighting was because his arrival was announced.

“Oh. Well, that is unfortunate. You've traveled all this way to break faith with House Targaryen?” She put her hands together in her lap.

Jon reminded her the horrible things our father had done to his family. “Break faith? Your father burned my grandfather alive. He burned my uncle alive. He would have burned the Seven Kingdoms--”

“My father... was an evil man. On behalf of House Targaryen...I ask your forgiveness for the crimes he committed against your family. And I ask you not to judge a daughter by the sins of her father.” She sent the man of the North a sympathetic look. “Our two houses were allies for centuries, and those were the best centuries the Seven Kingdoms have ever known. Centuries of peace and prosperity with a Targaryen sitting on the Iron Throne and a Stark serving as Warden of the North. I am the last Targaryen, Jon Snow. Honor the pledge your ancestor made to mine. Bend the knee and I will name you Warden of the North. Together, we will save this country from those who would destroy it.”

Jon looks at his boots briefly. “You're right. You're not guilty of your father's crimes. And I'm not beholden to my ancestor's vows.”

“Then why are you here?” She asked him.

Jon replied to her. “Because I need your help, and you need mine.”

“Did you see three dragons flying overhead when you arrived? And did you see the Dothraki, all of whom have sworn to kill for me? But still, I need your help?”

“Not to defeat Cersei. You could storm King's Landing tomorrow and the city would fall. Hell, we almost took it and we didn't even have dragons.” Davos entered their conversation again.

“Almost.” Tyrion pointed out.

Jon takes a few steps closer to her throne. “But you haven't stormed King's Landing. Why not? The only reason I can see is you don't want to kill thousands of innocent people. It's the fastest way to win the war, but you won't do it, which means, at the very least, you're better than Cersei.”

“Still, that doesn't explain why I need your help.” Dany raised a brow at him and I wasn’t sure where he was going with his statements either.

Jon boldly insulted her where I bit my lip a little harshly drawing some blood afraid for his safety. “Because right now, you and I and Cersei and everyone else, we're children playing at a game, screaming that the rules aren't fair.”

“You told me you liked this man.” Dany spared a glance to her Hand.

Tyrion didn’t remove his gaze from Jon. “ I do.”

“In the time since he's met me, he's refused to call me queen, he's refused to bow, and now he's calling me a child.” She raised her voice annoyed by the bastard before her.

Tyrion stuck up for his friend. “I believe he's calling all of us children. Figure of speech.”

“Your Grace, everyone you know will die before winter's over if we don't defeat the enemy to the north.”

She hated her teeth. “As far as I can see, you are the enemy to the north.”

“I am not your enemy. The dead are the enemy.” Jon takes a step closer to her.

Daenerys gave him a baffled look. “The dead? Is that another figure of speech?”

“The Army of the Dead is on the march. The white walkers are real. The night king is real and we have to stop them before everyone is Westeros is killed because of them.”

Jaime finally spoke back to the man of the North. “The White Walkers aren’t real. They’re just stories we tell children to make sure they behave or at least stay away from the Wall.”

“I understand why you wouldn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it until I faced them myself.” Jon shifted his gaze looking for my opinion. “Queen Vaella, what do you think about what I’m telling you?”

My sister snapped. “She’s not a Queen.”

“The black crown sitting on her head makes me think she is. She is also your older sister is she not. She shares your Taragaryn blood.” Jon points out not sensing the tension between my sister and I yet I had so I reached up removing the crown, letting it drop from my hand as I strided out of the room without another word.

“I shouldn’t be here, King Jon. Forgive me, I must go check on my children.”

Jaime barely remained still for a second running after me sensing something had upset me. “Vaella!”

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cyberdragoninfinity · 1 month ago

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Okay I know I was just here with III but I just got absolutely sledgehammered by the Arc-V ending (WTF) (Shun deserved better) so uh. Thoughts on Shun Kurosaki?

AHHAHAHAHA GOD. IM SO SORRY. IT'S. ROUGH. STAY STRONG MY FRIEND i would love to talk about shunshay kurosakiobsidian tho!

Why I like them/why I don’t: BIRD AUTISM IS SO COOOOOL I love that he's just so absurdly serious in a frequently deeply goofy yugioh, like GIVEN HIS SITUATION IT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE but it's still so funny. guy who takes it up to an 11 when most situations really need maybe only a 5. his dub voice rules also he's got the zane thing where he's either muttering angrily or SCREAMING and i always love that sort of vocal performance hehehe. also lbr raidraptors are just so fucking cool. just a guy and his 3892893435 bigger and bigger birds that are guns. i also need to be real shay is one of those yugioh characters where i decided they were a butch lesbian in my brain and my enjoyment of them just shot right through the roof. transfem shay youre so real to me. thumbs up

What I like about their appearance: AGAIN ARC V CHARACTER COLOR PALETTES JUST RULE SO HARD the different shades of teal in his hair, the pop of red in his bandana, that deep indigo of his trench coat...it's such a good palette he has a very striking design.

Do I prefer their dub names or original names? i incline towards shay more but shun has grown on me more over tim... im starting to do the ryozane thing where i just jam both names together sometimes lol.... i think i like obsidian as a surname more than kurosaki though

OTP: im an aro lesbian shayshun truther and i dont really have any ships for him im like frothing TOO too much at the mouth about...i do like the idea of crow/shay especially as a butch birder4butch birder thing though

NOTP: shay/dennis is like..... man i Like a good enemies to lovers but this one doesnt feel great to me. the optics on 'guy who lost everything in a horrific war crime' x 'guy who gave the ok for that war crime to happen' are kind of. not great. not my favorite. idk. also thats a dyke and a gay man to me but ANYWAY

OT3: this is absolutely not the romantic sense of 'ot3' but i do love the xyz trio so much. characters who deserve the goddamn world

Favourite card they use: i do love satellite cannon falcon. world's most absolutely unnecessary gigantic robot bird thats also a gun that has to literally leave the atmosphere to attack. insane. i love yugioh.

Favourite moment they were in: yeah on that note it's the shay/dennis friendship cup duel. he fucking blew that twink up with his giant space falcon and also the entire stadium too and he probably would have beat dennis to death with his bare hands if he didnt get stopped. and it KICKED ASS.

Least favourite moment: LITERALLY THOUGH LIKE. WHY DID THEY DO THAT TO SHUN IN THE LAST LIKE 4 EPISODES OF THE SERIES...... why did they make him just effectively lie down and take that absolute dogshit hand they dealt him for no fucking reason. his best friend and his sister are effectively dead. but la la la yuya beat him so it's fine :^) WHY COULDNT HE HAVE DUELED YUTO...HE WAS THERE.. IN YUYA'S BRAIN...WOULDVE BEEN NICE. 8| GOD.

Something I associate with them: this onion headline

#I LIKE HIM. WHY DID THEY DO THAT TO HIM.#YGO POSTING #asks #blackfeatherdragon

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web-novel-polls · 9 months ago

Text

Favorite WN Criminal Submissions [Closed]

Last Checked: August 7th, 2024 - Please check the original post for updates

Submissions CLOSED - Masterpost here

Rules:

One character per response

Submit as many responses as you want

Characters must be from a web novel or media with a web novel source/adaptation; manhua, manhwa, and other similar media without a web novel are at my discretion

"Criminal" can be based on IRL laws or in-world laws

Whether they're innocent/guilty or punished for their crimes doesn't affect eligibility. It's mainly just a "I'll know it when I see it" situation (Ex: If Character A was wrongly punished for a crime Character B committed, both characters would be eligible)

Tournament Tag: #wn criminal tournament

Submissions

Cale Henituse from Lout of the Count’s Family

Submission: An essential part of absolutely every plan he makes is to steal his enemies' stuff lmao 😂

Dragon half-blood from Lout of the Count’s Family

Submission: So much attempted murder, some successful murder presumably, kinda cannibalism (does it count as cannibalism if you eat other intelligent species?..) but consider: hes BABY (he's like 900yo) and hes a SOPPING WET KITTY CAT

Wiki Link

Fang Yuan from Reverend Insanity

Submission: He actually isn't my favorite I mostly like bai ning bing from this webnovel but please appreciate all of this man's crimes someone on Reddit compiled

Links Submitted: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4; Wiki Link

Gu Mang from Remnants of Filth / Yuwu

Submission: It's complicated... Defected from his kingdom and became an enemy general, killing who knows how many of his former comrades. Stabbed his lover in the heart. Shipped back to original country and punished for high treason. There's the spoilery reason, but he was still branded a criminal and a traitor. Anyway, I love him, one of my favorite characters of all time, and you all need to love him, too. Stop sleeping on Yuwu, people.

Wiki Link

He Xuan from Heaven Official’s Blessing

Submission: Deceiving the emperor, kidnapping, decapitation.

Wiki Link

Hua Binan from The Husky and His White Cat Shizun / 2ha

[No propaganda submitted]

Wiki Link

Ilvalino from I’ve Been Reincarnated as a Villainess’ Older Brother

Submission:

Was trained as an assassin since childhood, already did assassinations by the age of 6. In the original story - an otome game - he continues with this career until he's 17, and is known to kill people for minor offenses such as bumping into him or stepping on his foot. Moreover, in his route, he's driven insane by inner conflict and kills all the other capture targets to be alone with the heroine. In the story after titular reincarnation, he's picked up by the reincarnator/MC instead, and ultimately quits assassination altogether - although, again, he already Did Some Murder by that time.

Jiang Yexue from Remnants of Filth / Yuwu

Submission: Incest, kidnapping, mass murder, use of the Zhenlong Chess Formation, curse casting, etc.

Wiki Link

Jing Beiyuan from Qi Ye/Lord Seventh

[No Propaganda Submitted]

Image Link

Jin Guangyao from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Submission: "All my life, I've lied to countless people and I've harmed countless others. It's just like you said. I killed my father, killed my brothers, killed my wife, killed my son, killed my teachers, killed my friends---I've committed every crime there is!"

Wiki Link

Jun Wu from Heaven Official’s Blessing

Submission: This is MAJOR SPOILERS for Heaven Official's Blessing- but as for his crimes, just like. All his actions as Bai Wuxiang were so iconic. Jun Wu was so single mindedly focused, he manipulated so many people and brought so much death, destruction, and despair to ruin Xie Lian's life and to turn him into a Calamity like himself. It's the dedication to the bit for me, he wiped everything from his disastrous past and became emperor of heaven. Jun Wu had all of the heavenly court fooled and under his thumb for centuries and played the part of the caring mentor/father figure to Xie Lian all while gladly placing the cursed shackles on him.

Wiki Link

Kim Kiryeo from The Hunter of the Other World Who Is Being Misunderstood

Submission:

Kiryeo is an archmage from an alien civilization who was reincarnated on Earth. During his period of adaptation he is mistaken for being one of the extremely strong S-rank hunters, even though in reality his true magic capabilities are far more meager. After failing to convince the people around him that he's actually very squishy and weak, he decides to lean into the misunderstanding and falsifies the government records stating that he is indeed ranked S. Among the many crimes he's done, some notable ones are: Commited at least 5 murders (mostly in self defence) Attempted to steal a corpse. Succesfully stole a different corpse and accidently exploded it in a research accident. Commited tax avoidance for a whooping 40 bilion Won Agreed to help the police in a raid on illegal narcotics trade because he wanted to steal them from the crime scene, which he did. Kiryeo also calls himself a war criminal, and admits to causing near extinction of 3 separate inteligent species back on his home planet.

Ling Wen from Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF)

Submission: Created the Brocade Immortal, orchestrated the downfall of her predecessor, aided Jun Wu. Girlboss.

Li Xian from Female General and Eldest Princess / FGEP

Submission: Ran a secret organization of spies, set up 20 soldiers escorting her back home to be killed by said spies, pretended to have been attacked, gave a vital shipment of food and supplies meant for her kingdom's besieged army to the enemy, framed innocent civilians of treason to improve the reputation of her spouse who caused their deaths, deceived the emperor, faked her spouse's death, faked her own death, etc...

Wiki Link

Mo Ran from The Husky and His White Cat Shizun

[No Propaganda Submitted]

Crimes: where do I even start. World domination? SA? Murder?

Qi Rong from Heaven Official’s Blessing / TGCF

Submission: I mean... He dragged a literal child through the city on the back of a carriage. And he kills humans and eats them. He's pathetic. He's basically a cartoon villain, it's pitiful and that's why I love him

Wiki Link

Qiyan Agula from Clear and Muddy Loss of Love / JWQS

Source: JWQS Wiki

Submission: So many crimes... She is really the criminal of all time…

Sha Qing/Luo Yi/Li Biqing from Sha Qing / The Killer of Killers

Submission: Serial killer who kills serial killers with their own MOs.

Novel Updates Link

Shen Jiu from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Submission:

Murder, arson, child abuse... Look, some of those crimes were justified (stabbing Wu Yanzi) while some of them were absolutely not (giving a kid a flawed cultivation manual so that he'll die of qi-deviation). But Shen Jiu's life has twisted him so that he believes he's irredeemable, and he hates himself already, so he's just going to do what he wants, okay? "First, he'd been a rat forced to swallow its anger, cringing while awaiting more beatings. Then he'd become a gutter rat, scurrying back and forth as everyone chased and hit it. No matter how he changed, he ws a rat; cowering with its tail tucked between its legs, unable to see the light; letting years slip by in vain, squandering its time and life."

Image Link

Shen Zechuan from Qiang Jin Jiu

Submissions: Character of all time. He's done a lot of crimes, but I'll just mention that one time he put a guy in a cage, poured boiling water on him, and sliced off his skin piece by piece while he was still alive.

Wiki Link

Shi Wudu from Heaven Official’s Blessing / TGCF

Submission: stole someone's fate which inevitably led to the death of that person and their family, immoral enrichment with complete disregard for other people's lives (capsizes their ships if they haven't offered him enough)

Wiki Link

Wei Wuxian from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Submission: Okay, okay, I know, but the submission rules state that innocence doesn't affect eligibility. Wei Wuxian is innocent of...most of the charges against him, but he is branded a criminal by the cultivation world (and does fight against them).

Wiki Link

Wen Kexing from Faraway Wanderers

Submission: He makes murder look so sexy.

Wu Yanzi from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (SVSSS)

Submission: Known criminal and murderer, scum shizun to the scum shizun

Xue Yang from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Submission:

he's kinda...😳 he gets horny about crime and looks good with blood on his face. what else need i say.

Image Link

Zhou Zishu from Faraway Wanderers and Lord Seventh

Submission: So many crimes... So, so many…

Zhuzhi-lang from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (SVSSS)

Submission: Cute snek <3 also a demon general, murderer and kidnapper

Dealer’s Choice

Choi Noah from Villain Hides His True Colors

I know pretty much no one’s read this novel, but Choi Noah was a young child who awakened the “Gamer” ability due to trauma. He literally thinks he’s in a game & is absolutely unconcerned with common sense, including the laws. He repeatedly kills “mobs” and “monsters” (usually other humans or humanoids) for “coins.” In his first life, he became the first EX-Rank villain and teams with a devil trying to take over the world, who later betrays him for being “too evil.” The story starts with/right after his death as he “resets” the game to return to age 12 and ends up becoming a hero to “win the game.”

Gwon Ohjin from I’m Not a Regressor

“If he had to ignore his conscience for the price of living, he would do it any day.” - Chapter 13

This novel starts with Lee Shinhyuk, the final Awakener of a vicious battle against “the Heavenly Demon,” choosing to regress to kill the Heavenly Demon before so many people died. To do so, he asks a powerful goddess to bestow him her stigma, and once he regresses… he dies. Right in front of the unawakened, scammer Gwon Ohjin he had met years before. Who also happens to be the Heavenly Demon and the Owner of the Black Heaven, which can devour others’ stigmas.

If you’ve put two-and-two together, you’ll know that Gwon Ohjin’s Black Heaven absorbed the stigma that no one had managed to live through being bestowed, causing said goddess to assume GWON OHJIN is a regressor. He isn’t. He doesn’t know what’s going on. But he IS a scammer, and he sure as hell isn’t going to let the goddess know he stole her stigma off of some dead guy.

Crimes: thievery, fraud, murder (and probably more lol)

Lee Sookyung from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

No propaganda prepared yet

Van Cromwell from Just Because My Apprentice is the Strongest, Doesn’t Mean I’m Strong Too!

Mod Propaganda: Committed fraud (pretending to be an S-rank) that’s punishable by death just to stay with his childhood best friend.

Rejected

Ballister Blackheart from Nimona

Reason: Not from a web novel

Nimona from Nimona

Reason: Not from a web novel

#not a poll #submissions #wn criminal tournament #my submissions

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aching-tummies · 8 months ago

Text

True Stomach Ache

Members of my household (myself included) have been pretty busy lately. Due to that, we've been surviving on leftovers. We tend to batch-cook maybe two or three times a week or order a massive amount of take-out the one night in order to have it in the fridge to re-heat when it's time for a meal. Honestly, not my favorite strategy. Leftovers are already kind of lackluster…but 4-6 day old 'what was once curry' should be considered lethal. Personally, my rule of thumb is 3 days--if it's been in the fridge for 3 days then I don't want to eat it anymore. Unfortunately, that's the kind of thing that's been going into my poor tum for the last three days or so. I haven't had the time to cook and fast-food and stuff in my area is becoming increasingly overpriced and decreasing in quality. I don't want to spend the equivalent of 1.5 hours of pay on something that tastes like the cardboard and plastic it was shipped to the store in so I've opted not to eat out. With eating out not an option, I've been subjecting myself to the mystery leftovers in our fridge alongside other members of my household. They get mad at me when I don't help liquidate the leftovers anyway and I didn't want to be stressed and yelled at so I drank the proverbial Kool-aid (in this case, curry). My stomach really isn't happy about it. I guess last night and this morning, my tummy decided to get even.

Last night we had yet another dinner of 4 day old curry. Thank heavens for the fact that we have enough washrooms in the house for everyone because everyone suffered for the curry last night. Due to the curry's repeated exits, I ended up going to bed ravenous--'dinner' having been rejected by my stomach. I was too tired to bother trying to find something to fill my stomach so I opted to go to sleep hungry--thinking that at the very least I could treat myself to some hunger-kink in the morning.

Hopes of indulging in hunger-kink were dashed when I woke up due to a nasty twinge in my lower belly. It felt like a cross between period cramps and the urge to use the washroom. My intestines were empty though, thanks to the curry liquidating my guts a half dozen times last night. So…my stomach and intestines were empty, but they were all cramping up like they needed to go. I ended up writhing on my bed for a few hours, trying anything to quell the ache in my intestines. I tried rubbing it for a bit, which didn't help. I tried laying a weighted sack over it in hopes it'd squash the ache. The 'sack' is really just one of those microwavable heating packs filled with either grains or plastic beads or whatever. Even without heating it up, sometimes just the weight of it is pretty comforting when I've got stomach issues.

It's been a long time since I've truly felt like I experienced a true 'stomach ache'--like…this wasn't what I'd normally describe as indigestion or period cramps or being overfull or hungry--there was seemingly no cause and no explanation for my stomach to ache like it was this morning. I had initially planned to try sugarless bears take 2 today…but my guts were already being put through the wringer so I decided to save them for another time.

As always, if you want to treat this like an RP-starter, feel free. Honestly, with how often my stomach's been acting up I've been really thirsty for tum-content lately. I'm definitely not gonna doxx myself of whatever but at times I wish I could just meet up with someone into this stuff and let my stomach be their problem (or I guess, toy?) for a few hours.

#tummy ache #tummy ache kink #indigestion #upset stomach kink #belly rubs

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mooonjin · 2 years ago

Note

Hi hi!echo anon here i just realized that instead of putting echo x reader i put hunter/// can you feel my love for that man coming though yet-??? Anyways..the echo fic was so cute!! I hope you dont mind me requesting again;;but since i cant seem to get hunter off my mind... Hunter x reader where hunter is being a dad figure to omega AND navigating being in a relationship with the reader? I feel like alot of fics skip the part where The bad batch were soldiers and loving someone doesnt really come as easy to them;; oh my lord i wrote alot- anyways ill end this!! Do you have a masterlist?? And rules for your writings?

Juggling

Notes: AAAA so sorry echo anon that took so long to come you!! but its hereeee~~ to answerr your questions, i will have a masterlist soon once i get rest of the bad batch fics out and rules? not so really,, just nothing so super violent or extreemly dark smut ykk? okok enjoyyyyyyyyyy :DD

Pairing: Hunter x gn!reader

Summary: Dealing with a role as an older brother (dad) was something he'd never have thought of but also getting into a relationship? Yeah, that's another.

Warnings/Tags: mentions of Zygerrians, mild kissing, fluff — tell me if I've missed anything!

Hunter whimpered into the kiss.

You don't remember how many rotations it's been since you were able to have a makeout session with him. Let alone have him make noise. The shiver that travelled throughout your body caused you to push desperately against him.

Hunter's breathing shifted, he was almost panting like a dog in need of water. His kissing was sloppy, though you didn't complain. He's a soldier, obviously not the type to go around and practice kissing.

As Hunter's firm hands slid under your blacks, goosebumps appeared across your skin. His mere touch can send you into a frenzy; it was electrifying and soft. His hands came down to the hem of your shirt with the intention of removing it. He grinned teasingly against your neck, you could feel it.

As inexperienced as he seemed, he could still be the biggest tease ever. Just as he was about to take your top off, his thoughts wandered too far into a territory he'd been avoiding.

For him, he felt oddly free of worry and thought. He wasn't about to let that mindset take over him.

Hunter's paranoia kicked in, his hands abandoning your shirt and you completely.

You pouted once his touch left your skin, "Wait, where's Omega?" Hunter's iris dilated at a concerning speed, his eyes staring you down, his squint as menacing as ever. The initial atmosphere of arousal dissipating at lightspeed.

You sighed, shaking your head. He still wasn't used to balancing such a dad-like life with a relationship at the same time, "I sent her off with Wrecker," you reassured him, but he didn't appear too convinced. He always had to make sure Omega was somewhere in his sight, "Your brother's a big guy 'n Omega can handle herself now." you added on.

Whilst cupping his jaw, you examined his face. You gently took your thumb and caressed the tatted skull upon his cheek. He seemed nervous and wasn't easily reassured that Omega was okay. Not that he doesn't trust you or his brothers, oh gosh no.

"Woah-ho, 'm I interrupting?" a booming voice suddenly filled the Marauder, frightening Hunter and yourself.

It was only Wrecker, who seemed to be searching for Gonky as he frantically whipped his head around the nooks and cranny of the shuttle. The brute loves doing sets with the poor droid and is also the master of barging in without warning.

Although you had a grin on your face, Hunter wasn't the same. You could feel his gloved hands grip the lower part of your waist and you didn't know why.

His lips pursed inwards and his eyes squinted more than you've seen before. As his eyes darted around the space in thought, you spoke with a soft voice, "Hey, you okay?—"

"—Wrecker, where's Omega?"

This time, your eyes darted around the space, trying to regain Hunter's eye contact. You could hear happy noises erupt from further up the ship, assuming Wrecker found gonky laying around.

With a quick kiss on your forehead from Hunter, he hastily bolted up towards Wrecker, who was fortunately not paying attention to the lovebirds in the ship.

"Where's Omega?" as you walked slowly towards the two, you could hear how stern Hunter's voice became. You placed both of your hands on his shoulders to calm him down.

He looked over his shoulder to face you, oddly getting distracted by your beauty. The sight of his eyes relaxing a little bit was relieving.

"Left 'er with Cid, said she wanted to show her something she'd like—" faster than the speed of hyperspace, Hunter was out the Marauder in milliseconds and dashing his way deep into town, accidentally bumping you to the ground.

He didn't look back to apologise or even think twice about the harsh contact, by the time Wrecker helped you onto your feet, he was no longer visible.

You sighed, rubbing the back of your thigh from where you fell.

"Y'know... I have another weapon similar to that energy bow of yours," Cid mumbled. She walked over to her desk, the surface area filled with artifacts Omega had never seen before.

She wanted to inspect them all, pry, use, poke, do whatever she was able to do with the mysterious item. They didn't appear clean or regularly dusted but that was expected. 'Clean' wasn't usually the word for Cid's parlor.

Cid whipped out an old crate labelled 'FRAGILE' in bright red paint as well as being covered in crispy, aged blaster shots. Assuming the box was valuable and was definitely shot at, Omega's attention was directed from the target she was focusing on to the crate.

"Was that box stolen?" Omega piped up. She titled her head, curiously, making her way around the hologram table and towards Cid's desk.

As the crate made contact with the desk, multiple metal thumps could be heard from inside, a small wave of dust bouncing off the surface.

Cid scoffed, waving her hand about before opening the box, "Mmm, maybe, but no one's comin' after this, I'll tell you that," it was dusty. Really dusty. It must've been hidden away in the office for some time.

Unfortunately, Omega was too small to see what was in the box so she urged Cid to bring whatever the contents were inside, out. She received an eye roll from Cid, who complied anyway.

Having the embodiment of curiosity run about on two legs has its cons. It wasn't the most ideal around a snappy, sassy lizard.

Omega's eyes widened at the sight of a golden... stick?

"What's that supposed to be?"

"An electro-whip." Cid dusted off the thin layer of dust on the handle before presenting it. Omega let her fingers slide along the strange prongs on one end of the whip.

She was particularly interested in the design of the handle, her fingers descending from the prongs and onto the swirly, yellow designs.

As Cid lent Omega full control of the whip, she was already trying to find an on button, "How does it work?" she titled the handle on every angle, checking if there was anything to touch, press, hold, anything. She even dangerously stuck her eye through the prongs, looking down into a small contraption where the whole show of the whip emerged from.

"You might not wanna stick your eye there, Tiny," Omega immediately backing away as Cid chuckled. Cid gently took a hold of the handle and turning it around before giving it back to Omega, "Hold this handle and push this button, you'll hear a buzzing sound. And make yourself some room." she shooed Omega back.

She did as instructed, backing away from Cid's desk to give herself some room to charge up the whip. Looking around the handle, she found the button to hold down. Her thumb pressed against it, a tingly feeling and a buzzing noise slowly climbing up in decibels.

A golden stream of electricity emerged from the tip of the handle which startled Omega. She looked at the activated weapon in awe, fascinated at how it worked. Before she could wind up her arm to test the whip, Hunter came bursting through office door.

Startled again, Omega took her thumb off the button, the whip retracting, "Well, look who decided to show up." Cid chimed in, crossing her arms as Hunter stepped into the room.

His eyes immediately landing on whatever Omega was clutching in her hand. He noticed it right away, that same whip that he managed to overpower from the Zygerrian when they did their first rescue mission for Cid.

Hastily, he snatched it out of Omega's hand, careful not to hurt her in the process, "You shouldn't be toying with this," he walked over to the open crate on Cid's desk, placing the whip inside and closing the crate back up with a loud slam, buckling the crate tight.

He shot a brooding glare at Cid who defensively put her hands up.

Hunter placed a hand on Omega's shoulder, ushering her out the door. Omega waved to Cid before the sliding doors closed. The two exited the parlor entirely and was greeted with the sound of Ord Mantell.

The Marauder wasn't far from the parlor and neither was the Pantoran man that sold Mantell Mix. Omega giggled at the sight of Wrecker attempting to bargain the price.

As they passed Wrecker, Hunter gestured to him to just pay what the original price is considering they were going on a mission soon that pays well, "Maybe'll get cheaper next'ime..." he grumbled.

Omega gently shook her head, dismissing and forgiving Wrecker even though she didn't expect him to get anything when she came back from Cid's.

Wrecker happily ran ahead at the sight of a fixed Gonky and a disappointed Tech. You emerged from inside the Marauder, glad to see Omega well and Hunter calmed down.

After Wrecker had accidentally sat on Gonky's charging port, he'd ran off the buy something to compensate Tech for having to fix it.

You observed as Omega went along to hang out with Wrecker and Gonky. Tech, on the other hand, was glued to his holopad once again, "Echo and Crosshair are in need of my presence in town, excuse me." His put on his helmet and walked off, nodding dismissively to Hunter to let him know as well.

You stood upon the open door of the shuttle, waiting for Hunter to acknowledge you. Once he had taken his eyes of Omega, his eyes swept straight to you.

He expected a grin or an arms open hug but was met with a cold expression. Deep down he knew he did something wrong running off like that and ignoring you instantly. You exited the shuttle, walking towards him. He froze, terrified he might've made you angry.

He didn't know what to do in situations like this, having only seen scenarios similar when he would watch holofilms. Hunter was nervous, expecting it to end how it would've in the films: yell, shout, quiet down, angry break up.

"Look I really—"

"—You okay?"

What?

He didn't expect that question from you. Hunter was taken aback, almost forgetting to answer your question, "Wha— oh, yes, I'm okay? I guess," you chuckled at his step up, bringing a grin to his face. He hoped this wasn't a cover up of you being twitchy with him.

You pecked his lips, pulling away to address the recent situation, "Omega can be curious—" you began.

"—And reckless." Hunter finished, sighing, but you quickly shushed him with your index finger.

"And that's what makes her, her. I know you want to prevent her from getting hurt or lost but she's still a kid." Hunter's eyes panned over to Wrecker and Omega playing catch — Gonky basically being piggy in the middle — proudly witnessing the first time on Saluecami with Shaeeah and Jek. They both were happy and giggly, occasionally missing the ball and accidentally throwing towards one another's face, "Remember what Suu told you?"

"Children will always find ways of getting into trouble," he quoted, taking his eyes off the duo and back to yours. They always seemed to glimmer every time he stared.

You pulled him into a hug, if wasn't as comfortable with his armour on but the embrace is what matters.

Hunter pulled away, his hands returning to your waist, "I really like you a lot..." he sighed.

"Only?"

He became flustered at the intense eye contact, "Well—maybe more, I uh, don't know...?"

"I love you too," you pecked him again, watching as he scratched the back of his neck, "You're allowed to say it, are you not ready?" you prepared to apologise.

"No, it's not that it's just... I'm not the type someone falls in love with." he nervously confessed. You enveloped him in a passionate kiss, offering comfort. A small smooch of a plop was heard as the both of you pulled away.

"Would you care to finish what we started?" you grinned, feeling how tense his hands became that rested behind your waist.

"Gladly," he growled.

This time, you were gonna get more than whimpers out of him.

Post-Notes: didya like it? i enjoyed the prompt s bunch!! tysm anonn ^^

wanna be a part of my taglist?

~ ~ ~

@elsastoes @nekotaetae @jiabeewrites @lokigirlszendaya @imalovernotahater @backyard-bear

#hunter the bad batch #star wars #the bad batch #the bad batch x reader #hunter x reader #clone trooper x reader #mooonjin #funky lil fluff #enjoy as slways!!#tbb #tbb hunter

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modelbus · 2 years ago

Note

Could I get CC!Dream x F!reader with childhood friends to lovers and fake dating?

Now I wonder why childhood friends to lovers goes so well with Dream...

Pairing: CC!Dream x Fem!Reader

Childhood Friends to Lovers - Fake Dating

If you told eleven-year-old you that you'd be pretending to date your best friend, you would've called the cops on the crazy lady. Except here you are, pretending to date your childhood best friend.

Dream was the only person you'd ever even consider doing this for, and he had a good reason. It was just to get fans and his family off his back. His fans were persistent, and God knows his family has been rooting for you two to get together for a long time now. Everything just made sense for you two to just... pretend. Only for a little while.

Except that "little while" tipped into a month, then three. And now you're sitting next to Dream at his streaming setup, about to greet his millions of fans live for the first time.

To say you were nervous was an understatement. Millions of people were about to give their opinions on you without editing, and thousands were doing it live. Something like this could ruin your life.

"I'm right here if it gets too much, okay?" Dream asks, taking your hand in his and rubbing the back of it with his thumb.

It's because you're fake dating. Even if no one is around. He's just gotten so used to doing it in public that he'll do it in private now. That's it, nothing more.

You can't let yourself hope for more.

"I know. I'm just scared they won't like me, y'know?"

"No, I don't know. You're an amazing person, okay? Everyone loves you. Everyone will love you. I promise."

“You can’t promise that.” You point out, rolling your eyes.

“Yes, I can. Besides, I can always just ban them. Ready?”

You take a deep breath in and then release it. “Yeah.”

He doesn’t let go of your hand when he presses the “go live” button, and for that, you’re infinitely grateful. People flood in chat, already asking questions about you and rejoicing there’s a Dream facecam stream.

“Holy shit.” You breathe, eyes on the view count as it steadily ticks up.

“I meant to hide that.” Dream groans, reaching over you to use his mouse to turn it off.

“Sometimes I forget how fucking famous you are.”

“It’s my superpower. Anyways, hi! Hi guys! How are you? Good? Who is this? This is my girlfriend! From the photos and the stories!”

“Hi!” You give an awkward wave. “Uh, I don’t know what to say.”

“We’re just going to answer questions and stuff.” Dream explains for you.

“Easy questions please, I will die live on stream.” You beg.

“I’ll take the hard ones.”

“You’re hard?” You ask, seizing your chance to make the joke.

“THAT IS NOT WHAT I SAID!”

“But you’re not denying it-“

With a shove, your chair is sent out of frame. Dream’s push is too forceful though, making the chair tip. In your panic you don’t even think about getting out, just screaming and going down with your chair like a captain and their ship.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” Dream asks immediately, abandoning his chair to help you up.

“Yeah. But you broke the chair.”

You take his hand, and he hauls you up before bending to pick up the broken wheel from your chair. Not even twenty minutes in and you’ve already broken it.

“Take mine.” He offers.

“It’s your stream, I’m not-“

“My stream, my rules. Take my chair.”

Well, you weren’t going to decline it a second time. His regrets were his to live with, not yours. Within seconds you’ve taken up residence in his much nicer chair.

“Sorry about that, Dream broke my chair.” You explain to the viewers. “Uh, questions?”

Dream ends the stream about thirty minutes and a shit ton of questions later. Most of your answers were surprisingly truthful—how you met, favorite memories—but Dream did have to bullshit how you two started dating.

“That went well.” You say, spinning your chair around to face him.

“Did you think it’d go bad?”

“Well yeah. We’re lying about dating, it’s a recipe for disaster."

"...Right." Dream nods, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Speaking of, when exactly are we ending it?"

"Ending what?"

Okay, you've been friends with Dream for a very long time. Too long, sometimes. But you've known each other long enough to know when he's acting oblivious and when he's actually oblivious.

“This whole fake dating thing. We can’t let it go on forever, what about when we actually want to date someone?”

That wasn’t the real reason you were asking, but he didn’t need to know that. The problem was that you didn’t want to break up. Which was exactly why you had to before you were too far in.

He frowns, just a little, and you panic. You don’t mean to make him feel bad about this, really. Internet and family pressure fucking sucked, and you were more than willing to help out.

“Not that I’m not having fun!” You blurt out. “This is fun!”

“It’d make the most sense to break up tonight, I guess. Blame it on the pressure from the livestream.”

Hang on, you didn’t mean to break up right that second! Although fake dating Dream was a little weird at first, you got used to it. You got to know a slightly different side of him, one you quickly came to love just the same as the one you grew up with. Detaching yourself from that would require time, more than a few seconds.

“Okay.” You speak past the lump in your throat, desperately trying to ignore how you didn’t want this to end. It just had to.

Out of all the people you’ve dated, he’s been the best. He took you on dates, posted the cringiest photos of you. And it was fucking fake!

Really, how could anyone blame you for falling for him?

“So, um. That’s it then?” You ask, fiddling with your hands. You’re still in his chair, looking up at him. Maybe you should leave?

“What? I’m not a total dick, Jesus. I’m at least going to break up with you at a nice dinner.” Dream laughs.

“Aw, you’re giving me the full relationship experience!” You jokingly gush, holding your hands to your heart. A part of you is thankful for the fact you get the rest of the day to prepare yourself.

“I’m a true gentleman.” He agrees. “Now help me pick out an outfit that screams ‘I’m about to break your heart.'"

“Only if you help me pick one that screams ‘I think you’re going to propose.’”

“Deal.”

He sticks out his hand, and you shake on it.

———

This was a bad idea.

Sitting across from Dream, trying to keep all your focus on eating your food, a sense of dread just kept growing. Dating him wasn’t real, you shouldn’t be dreading the end this badly. It’s for the best, anyways. He didn’t like you the same way you liked him.

Part of it was your own doing. The outfit you helped him pick out looked good on him, too good. As if you really needed another thing drawing your eyes to him.

“I still can’t believe you chose Pepsi over Coke.” Dream says, breaking the silence.

“The waitress would’ve thought we’re a Coke-only couple.” You reason.

“We aren’t?!”

You laugh, rolling your eyes. Ever since the first day you met him, he refused to drink Pepsi over Coke. He laughs with you, but it quickly dies out.

“Is it weird I’m nervous?” You ask. “To fake break up?”

“I’m nervous too! But not for the same reason.”

Huh? What else would he have to be nervous about?

“Are you nervous about making a scene in front of everyone? Don’t worry, I’ll keep my heartbreak to a minimum.”

It was true. Dream would never have to know you wished this was all real. It was better this way: to lose hope of a romantic relationship in favor of keeping a platonic one. He was practically the other half of you. Some of him was better than none.

“Okay.” He nods to himself before putting his hand palm up on the table.

You hesitate, but he raises his eyebrows at you, so you slide your hand into his. His hand is unnaturally warm, even for him, the guy that always seemed to run warm. He’s nervous, more than you.

“My wonderful, beautiful girlfriend.” Dream begins grandly. “It is time for our relationship to end. I simply cannot go on like this.”

A laugh finds its way out of you at his dramatics. Somehow he always finds a way to make you laugh.

“Well, my dear boyfriend, you will always be my favorite ex-boyfriend in my heart.” You play along.

“Great. Now we’re broken up.”

“That we are. Back to being best friends.”

You go to pull your hand away from his, but he tightens his grip on yours just slightly. It’s nowhere near tight enough to hurt, but it’s enough to suggest not pulling away.

“Wait.” He awkwardly clears his throat, slowly flushing red.

“What?” You ask, confused. You’ve broken up, the fake dating thing is over.

“My stupid, amazing best friend." It's somewhat of a repeat of what he just said, but clearly more serious. "I asked you to pretend to date me to put off pressure, and you did. But throughout the three months we pretended to be in love, I realized I wasn’t fucking pretending. You would’ve thought after my parents asked if we were dating for the thousandth time I would’ve figured it out, but nope. It took us pretending to date for me to realize. So, will you go out with me? For real this time?”

“What?” You ask dumbly.

Of all the ways you’ve thought about this dinner going, this wasn’t one of them. Although you probably should’ve seen it coming, really. You and Dream always did seem to share the same thoughts.

“I’m asking you to date me. Not for anyone else this time, just for us.” After a second of your silence, he gives a small smile. “As much as I love the fact I’ve finally made you speechless, I’m kind of freaking the fuck out.”

“I- sorry, yes. Holy fuck, yes.”

Dream laughs loudly. “How long have I been fucking blind?”

God, he could read you like a fucking book.

“Way too long.”

He lets go of your hand to grab his coke and hold it in the air. “I feel like we should cheers or something. Celebrate that you didn’t turn me down.”

“Celebrate that some crushes end in romance.” You suggest, raising your Pepsi.

“How about to it being real this time?”

Your glass clinks against his, both of you speaking at once.

“To you not being blind.” You joke.

“To it being rea- hey!”

#dreamwastaken x reader #dreamwastaken #dreamwastaken x you #dream x you #dream x reader #dream #dsmp #dsmp imagine #mcyt #mcyt imagine #dream mcyt #dream dsmp

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mama-qwerty · 10 months ago

Text

A Bad Idea Made Better

Okay, I'm done staring at this thing. Hopefully it came out better than I think it did, because it's bugging me for some reason.

Anyway, enjoy!

(Who is Callie?)

~~~~~

“You can’t be serious.”

Maddie and Callie were sitting at the counter in the ‘kitchen’ of the Sanctuary. A handful of Knuckles mingled in the various areas—the game corner, the sparring area, behind them rummaging through cupboards in search of snacks—and the moms were there in case anyone needed anything. The redhead cast a cocked eyebrow to her friend. “Tell me you’re not serious.”

Maddie shrugged. “He’s already started three fights in the last half hour,” she said, and a commotion drew their attention to another starting. “Make that four.”

Callie turned toward the noise with an annoyed sigh. “Dread, KNOCK IT OFF!”

“I be innocent as a newborn babe, lass! T’ain’t me fault that Rennie here be so easy to rile!”

“DON’T CALL ME RENNIE!”

The two continued to bicker as Callie rolled her eyes and turned back to Maddie. “And you want me to take him to my house? Why not just ship him back to No Place?”

Another shrug from the vet. “He came in today with a note pinned to his back from his crew.” She slid it toward Callie. ’Don’t let him come back until he’s less of an ass.’

The redhead snorted out a laugh. “He’d never go home, then.”

“Right?” Maddie sighed, rubbing her temple. “Look, I know it’s not ideal, but if he stays here, he’s gonna cause a multi-versal brawl. Just . . . take him for an hour. Two at most.”

“Have you forgotten I have my own gremlin at home? You think I can handle two of them?”

Maddie sat up straighter, clapping a hand on Callie’s shoulder. “I have the utmost faith in you, Madam MacPherson. Keeper of the Gremlins. Controller of the Most Troublesome.”

Callie heaved a defeated sigh. “Fine. I’ll take him. But if, no WHEN, this blows up in my face, you owe me.”

“I’ll make you a batch of my incredibly tantalizing lasagna. With extra ricotta.”

The redhead hissed in a breath. “Oh, you temptress.”

“I may even make it for you anyway. I know this is a big ask.”

“Yeah, but you’re right,” Callie said, glancing over to where Dread and Ren were starting to throw hands. “He’s in rare form today. Maybe a change of scenery will help.”

“Thanks, Cal.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She pushed herself away from the counter, clapping her hands as she walked closer to the two fighting echidna. “Break it up, boys! Dread, you’re coming with me. We’re going on a field trip.”

~X~X~X~

Silver sat on the couch with Eclipse, trying to catch up in Mario Kart. He’d gotten better over the last few months, but still had trouble with curves.

“I’m so gonna beat you!” the darkling laughed as he maneuvered his way around the track. “You’re so slow.”

The hedgehog didn’t answer. He focused on his car, moving his thumbs over the controls to try and gain some ground.

He’d just started the second lap when the portal that led to the Sanctuary opened. He didn’t quite understand everything about this magic place his mom went to. Something about it being another dimension, one that didn’t follow the normal rules of time. She would go through, and then come back a few seconds later, even though she would say she’d been there for a long time.

Silver kinda wanted to see what this place was like. Mom said there were a lot of different Knuckles there—like that one Spiderman movie with all the different versions—and they have fun sometimes, but sometimes there are fights, or it’s sad and she helps them not be sad. He didn’t doubt that—his mom was really good at helping people feel better.

He normally didn’t pay a whole lot of attention when she came back, but today she wasn’t alone. The portal opened in the archway between the living room and kitchen, and she walked out as usual, but someone followed. He looked a lot like the Knuckles they knew, but he was dressed in funny clothes.

He looked like a pirate!

“Cool!” Silver gasped, dropping his controller and rushing over to where his mom and this new Knuckles stood. “Hi! You look so cool!”

The echidna startled, his hand going to the hilt of his sword, when Callie reached down to grab his wrist.

“No swordplay,” she said, her voice stern. The Knuckles flicked his eyes to her, then back to Silver, a look of confusion on his muzzle. “These are my boys. My sons. Silver the Hedgehog, and Eclipse the Darkling.”

Silver gave a little wave at his name, and he heard Eclipse pause the game and wander over.

“Who’s that?” the darkling asked, crossing his arms. “Why’s he dressed so weird?”

“Eclipse, don’t be rude,” Callie sighed, and a frown passed over the echidna’s face.

“I be the legendary captain Knuckles the Dread.” He raised his hand in a flourish as he flashed a smile, the light shining off his gold tooth. “The strongest, most dangerous pirate on the seven seas of No Place.”

Silver’s ears flicked back slightly. A pirate? Weren’t pirates mean? His mom wouldn’t bring a mean pirate home, would she?

Beside him, Eclipse’s body language changed, and he wore an excited smile.

“A pirate??” he exclaimed, moving forward and bouncing on the balls of his feet. “That’s so cool! Do you attack other pirates? Do you swing on ropes around your ship? Do you have sword fights?” He gasped. “Can I see your sword??”

“Eclipse, pull it back, kiddo,” Callie said, moving to push the darkling back a little. “Dread is here as a guest for a few hours today. You will both be polite and not crowd him, or ask all sorts of nosy questions.”

“Nonsense!” the pirate cried, moving forward to pat Eclipse on the shoulder. “They be curious ‘bout the life and adventures of such a far-traveled pirate! Ye can’t begrudge them a few tales, can ye, lass?”

“Yeah, Mom!” Eclipse said, trying his best to give her puppy dog eyes. “C’mon! I wanna hear some pirate stories from a real life pirate!”

Silver flicked his eyes back and forth between his brother, the echidna, and his mom. She seemed pretty calm. If Dread was dangerous, he theorized, she wouldn’t have brought him here in the first place, and would be much more protective. He relaxed some, his ears returning to a more upright position.

Pirate stories did sound pretty cool.

“Did you ever find treasure?” he asked, and Dread smiled wide.

“Oh, lad,” he said, throwing an arm around each boy and bringing them close. “Ye have no idea.”

~X~X~X~

Dread was in his element. He stood before the boys, telling tales of his greatest adventures, gesturing and miming his actions as he spoke. They were enthralled—eyes wide and cheering in just the right places.

He flicked his eyes over to Callie, and the lass sat to the side, a small smile on her lips. She shook her head slightly occasionally. Okay, maybe he was . . . embellishing a bit. Just a bit. Just enough to keep the boys’ attention.

This felt good. Felt right. Having all eyes on him, admiring his feats. No one at the Sanctuary gave him this much attention. Not without ridiculing him, or doubting every word he said. There he felt as though he were constantly being judged, constantly dismissed. Tolerated at best.

But here? He felt welcomed. Valued. Appreciated.

And it made a warmth spread in his chest. It was a feeling he’d never really experienced before, and he liked it. He liked it a lot.

Yessir, this was a nice change of pace.

~X~X~X~

Callie gave a little eye roll as Dread continued his tales. She’d heard most of these before—Dread wasn’t shy about telling others of his deeds—but the details seemed to be a bit . . . stretchy. There were more foes than she remembered, the kraken was much bigger, (oh, and now there were two), and some of the timelines didn’t seem to add up.

But, whatever. He was having fun, no one was fighting, and the boys seemed completely spellbound by his stories. She was checking this as a win.

~X~X~X~

Eclipse leaned closer as Dread spoke of monsters and battles, treasure and triumph. He was so cool! Not like the Knuckles they knew. Knuckles Wachowski may have been the most dangerous warrior in the galaxy at one time, but now he was more interested in gardening and doing yoga. Always talking about how ‘fighting is only a last resort’ and ‘live a life of virtue’ and blah blah blah.

What a load of bunk. Eclipse was a weapon. A soldier built specifically to fight and win. Sure, he liked not having to fight now, and living with his mom and brother was a lot better than his life on the Black Comet, but that didn’t mean he was some weak pushover! Dread’s life sounded so fun!

The pirate finished up another story, and Eclipse cheered.

“That was awesome! I wanna be a pirate! Mom, can I be a pirate like Dread?”

“’Course ye can, lad!” Dread answered before Callie could open her mouth. “In fact, both ye and yer brother here c’n be honorary members of me crew!”

The two boys moved in sync, hopping to their feet and flashing him a salute. “Aye, aye, Captain!”

“Okay, let’s not get carried away,” Callie said, just as her phone rang. She pulled it from her back pocket, giving it a tap to answer. “Hello? Linda? What’s wrong?”

Eclipse sighed, rolling his eyes. Linda was one of the other ladies who worked at the library. She was nice and all, but kinda boring. She always seemed nervous around him. He didn’t know why—he’d only almost bit her that one time. Almost. Hardly something to hold a grudge about, really.

“Is he okay? Good. Come in? Oh, I can’t, I have . . .” She glanced at Dread. “Company. From out of town. Call Karen and see if she can . . . oh she can’t?” She sighed. “Okay. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

She hung up and turned to the three by the couch. “I have to head into work. Linda’s son broke his arm and they’ve gotta run him to the hospital.”

“Oh,” Silver said, his ears flicked back. “Is Jake okay?”

“Yeah, he’ll be fine. Just needs his arm set.” She chewed her lip slightly, her eyes on the echidna. “Dread, can I talk to you for a sec?”

“’Course, lass.”

He followed her to the kitchen, just as Eclipse turned to Silver.

“Remember when I said Knuckles wasn’t cool?” Silver nodded. “I take it back. This one is soooo cooool.”

~X~X~X~

Callie led Dread into the kitchen, around the island to speak quietly with him.

“I’ve gotta head into work, and can’t take the boys with me.” She paused, pulling her lips tight. These next words out of her mouth were really gonna hurt. “I need to know I can trust you to watch over them for an hour.”

Her voice was soft, but firm, her eyes locked with his. She didn’t want to do this. This wasn’t an ideal scenario. On any other day, she would have simply closed the library for emergency reasons, but there was a book club meeting there in 20 minutes and she couldn’t leave them in the lurch.

Dread looked back, a little scowl on his face.

“Lass, ye offend me,” he said, crossing his arms. “When have I ever shown meself as untrustworthy?”

She gave him a look. One that essentially said ‘Do you want that answer alphabetically, or in order of importance?’

He seemed to catch her meaning, and dropped the scowl with a guilty smile.

“Aye, that be a bit of bad phrasing on my part,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. He stood straighter, bringing his fist to his chest. “I give ye me word, lass. I’ll guard them with me life.”

A little smirk curled her lip, and she gave a slight chuckle. “Not sure that will be necessary, but I appreciate the thought.” She placed a hand on his shoulder, giving a little squeeze. “God forgive me for what I’m about to say, but . . .”

She took a breath, pulling her lips tight.

“Dread, you’re in charge.”

~X~X~X~

Silver sat at the kitchen table, watching Eclipse and Dread rummage through the fridge. There were plenty of leftovers, and before his mom left she said they could have what they wanted if they were hungry.

“Blimey!” Dread had exclaimed when Eclipse opened the fridge door. He reached his hand inside with an expression of wonder. “It be colder than a witch’s—” He caught himself, flicking his eyes to the boys before clearing his throat. “I mean, heh, it be mighty cold in this cupboard.”

“It helps keep food fresh,” the hedgehog said as he moved closer to pull out some leftover macaroni and cheese. “The cold makes sure it doesn’t spoil as fast.”

“Bloomin’ brilliant,” the pirate muttered as he peered into the shelves.

Eclipse piled leftover spaghetti on his plate, shoving a forkful into his mouth before crinkling his nose. “Ugh, too cold.”

“I’ll warm it up,” Silver said, priming his power to move the plate to the microwave. Eclipse balked, waving him away as he carried the plate over himself.

“I can do it!”

“Mom says you’re not allowed to use the microwave. Not after what happened last time.”

Eclipse waved a dismissive hand, uttering an annoyed ‘tch’. “Mom’s not here, is she? And that was weeks ago. Ancient history.”

The darkling popped the plate into the microwave and pressed a few buttons. The machine hummed to life, but shortly thereafter it began to spark and issue loud snaps. Silver gasped.

“You forgot to take your fork off the plate again!”

“You distracted me!”

“Get it out!”

“I will, don’t rush me!”

Eclipse turned to reach for the microwave door, when Dread jumped in front of him, pushing the boy back and drawing his sword.

“Watch yerself, lad! That be dangerous!”

And with that, the pirate swung his sword, slashing the microwave and cleaving it in two. It fell to the counter with a mighty crash.

Silver’s eyes went wide. Oh. Ohhh no.

“You killed our microwave!” he yelled, his hands pressed to this cheeks. This was so bad. “Mom’s gonna kill us!”

Dread looked confused, snapping his head back and forth from Silver to the now greatly deceased machine. “I thought . . . it be sparkin’ like a lightning storm, and I didn’t . . .”

The cats’ automatic feeder kicked in then, startling Dread, who spun and hurled his sword toward the new sound. It struck the feeder, splitting the side and spilling dry food all over the floor. Much to Bloom’s delight.

Silver shrieked. “Stop breaking things!”

“It ain’t me fault!” Dread cried back, hurrying over to pull his sword free.

“What are we gonna do??” Silver cried, wringing one of his long head spikes. “Mom’s gonna be so mad when she sees this!”

“Calm down, we’ll just . . . fix it,” Eclipse shrugged, poking at the pieces of microwave littering the counter. “Think Tails could come over?”

Silver shook his head. “Tails can’t fix that! It’s destroyed!”

“Then we’ll just get a new one!” the darkling yelled, throwing his arms over his head. “How much could they cost? $20?”

“Do you have $20?”

“No!”

“THEN HOW ARE WE GONNA BUY A NEW ONE??”

“I DON’T HEAR ANY IDEAS FROM YOU!!”

“QUIET!!”

Dread’s shout snapped the two out of their argument, and they turned to him. He sheathed his sword, walking toward them with a contemplative expression.

“Yellin’ and fussin’ ain’t gonna solve nothin’,” he said, stopping with his hands on his hips. “We need a plan. Be there any shops in town that carry those warming box things?”

The boys exchanged a glance, and Silver nodded. “Charlie’s should. They have a bunch of stuff like fridges and washing machines and stuff.”

The echidna nodded. “Then we go to this Charlie’s and see what we can do to get a new one.”

“But we don’t have any money.”

Dread smiled, in a smirky, confident kind of way. “Ye leave that to me.”

~X~X~X~

Ten minutes later and they were walking into town. Most of the townspeople didn’t really bat an eye at them, but Dread’s outfit drew some double takes. Eclipse supposed they weren’t expecting to see the red echidna they were used to dressed up like a pirate.

“What’s it like being a pirate?” the darkling asked. All of Dread’s stories sounded so fun. “Is it hard?”

“Oh, the pirate life be full of danger and adventure,” Dread said, a fond smile on his face. “Sometimes more danger than adventure, and there be plenty o’ times I nearly got me head handed t’ me, but it be the only life I know.”

“Don’t you have to . . . hurt people, if you’re a pirate?”

Eclipse flicked his eyes to his brother. Part of him wanted to feel annoyed at the hedgehog’s sensitivity to things like this, but another part fully understood Silver’s point of view. The world Silver came from was hard and violent and scary. Not something he wanted to relive.

Dread seemed to sense the boy’s mood, and he curled an arm around Silver’s shoulders to pull him close.

“Aye, sometimes there be no avoidin’ a battle,” he said, his voice soft. “Sometimes fighting be all we can do to keep ourselves safe. We try not to seek out fights, but we deal with ‘em if they come to us.”

Silver seemed to think about this. “So you’re . . . defending yourselves.”

Dread nodded, that smirk on his face again. “Aye. We defend ourselves and what be ours.”

“I guess that’s okay.”

“It’s not just okay, it sounds awesome!” Eclipse said, moving to walk backward in front of them. “Think you could teach me to sword fight? Man, I wanna come to your world and fight a kraken! I bet I could take it!”

The echidna cocked an eyebrow at the boy. “Do ye even know what a kraken be?”

Eclipse felt his muzzle warm. “I dunno. Like a big turtle?”

“’Fraid not, me lad,” Dread said with a chuckle. “It be a giant leviathan from the depths of the ocean. A creature longer than most ships and bearin’ a grudge against anything that breathes the air. It wraps its thick tentacles ‘round yer boat and drags it below the waves, to drown everyone aboard and eat them at its leisure.”

A beat of silence. “I could still take it.”

Dread barked out a loud laugh. “I bet ye could, lad. I bet ye could. Ye have the soul of a pirate, ye do, with the bravery to match.” He leaned a bit closer, dropping his voice. “Though don’t tell yer mum I said such a thing. She’d box me ears somethin’ good.”

Eclipse nodded with a smile. He wasn’t exactly sure what ‘box me ears’ meant, but he got the gist of it. His mom could get a little scary when angry. And a little over protective when it came to him and Silver. If she found out Dread was encouraging any dangerous or risky behavior, he’d be on the receiving end of that anger.

And even a seasoned pirate didn’t want to face her wrath.

“There’s Charlie’s,” Silver said, pointing across the street.

Dread nodded. “Aye. Let’s get what we came for.”

~X~X~X~

The building was larger than any shop Dread had ever been in. It held many different machines, and he could only guess what they were made for. Since they were designed for humans, most were larger than him. This world made him feel so much smaller than his own. It was unnerving.

He let the boys take the lead, since this was their world, and they were more comfortable navigating it. He still kept a sharp eye and ear on their surroundings—he’d promised the lass he would care for them, and come hell or high water, he would. They would not be harmed under his watch.

“Over here,” Silver called as he headed down an aisle. Dread followed, and they soon found themselves before a row of boxes with a picture of a microwave on the front. “This one looks like ours.”

“Aye.”

Dread stepped forward, and pulled the box off the shelf. It was heavier than he expected, but nothing his strength couldn’t handle. He hoisted it over his head, turning to the boys.

“Now what?” Eclipse asked.

The echidna paused. He was at war with himself.

Part of him wanted to do this the right way. Callie had trusted him, and he wanted so badly to make her proud, to do right and prove her trust in him was well placed. That part said to go to the owners of the shop, discuss terms, and see if there was some deal they could make. He had some gold in his jacket pocket, but he didn’t know how it compared to the currency of this world.

“What be the price on this?”

Silver looked at a little tag on the shelf. His ears flicked backwards. “Two hundred dollars.”

Eclipse grimaced. “That’s . . . a lot more than $20.”

Dread gave a little hum as he thought. He had no idea what a ‘dollar’ was, but he didn’t have that many gold pieces on him. He supposed he could have gone back to No Place to get more, but honestly, that was a lot of hassle, and he was getting impatient. He didn’t know when Callie would return home, and wanted this solved quickly.

And the other part of him, the part that told him all that ‘do the right thing’ stuff was a load of bollocks, slowly got louder.

It looked like there was only one solution.

“Ye know, this Charlie be pretty selfish to keep all these to himself,” he said, keeping his voice casual. “Look how many be on the shelf. He won’t miss one.”

Silver turned to him, eyes wide. “What do you mean? Are you saying we should . . .” His voice dropped low, and he looked around. “Steal it??”

“It all be a matter of perspective, lad. If ye were really hungry, would ye steal a loaf of bread?”

The boys exchanged a glance. Eclipse shrugged.

“I guess,” Silver said, pulling his head spike around to squeeze and twist. “But this isn’t the same, is it? You can’t eat a microwave.”

“Nay, but ye can make food in the thing.” He shrugged. “It be a gray area.”

The hedgehog continued to worry at his head spike, and now pulled his lip in to chew on. Dread flicked his eyes to Eclipse, who seemed less bothered with the whole situation. “Ye understand, don’t ye, lad?”

Eclipse seemed to consider things for a moment, before turning to his brother.

“C’mon Silver,” the darkling said, his voice tinged with annoyance. “It’s not like he’s even gonna notice it missing.”

“Can I help you kids?”

The three froze, and slowly turned to see an older man standing at the end of the aisle. His eyes flicked up to the microwave over Dread’s head, and the echidna’s pirate instincts kicked in.

“RUN FOR IT, LADS!”

And without bothering to check on the boys, Dread sprinted toward the front door.

~X~X~X~

Eclipse’s tail went rigid when Dread took off. He left them?? He was this cool pirate and he left them??

Snapping his head back around, he saw the look on Mr. Charlie’s face. First he was confused, then shocked. Then he was mad.

Oh. Oh no.

“It’s not what you think!” Silver was saying, his hands held out in front of him. Eclipse lunged forward to grab his brother’s wrist, before teleporting them back to the front of the store.

~X~X~X~

The door was in sight. Dread ran for it, holding his prize high above his head. All he had to do was get through that door, and he’d be good as gold.

Right now he wasn’t thinking about Callie. He wasn’t thinking about the two boys he left back in that aisle. He was running on ‘pirate brain’, consumed with winning and doing what he wanted, what he needed, to get his mission accomplished.

And that’s when he was hit in the middle by a screeching darkling.

“You’re gonna get me in trouble!” Eclipse yelled as he wrestled with Dread. The microwave went flying, and the echidna was surprised at the strength and agility the boy possessed. He tried to grab him to pull him off, but the darkling was too quick.

“Get off me!” he bellowed, right before he suddenly realized he couldn’t move. Glancing to his left, he found Silver with his hands extended out. A strange cyan glow surrounded them, the same glow that held him and the microwave captive. “By Neptune’s beard . . .”

“I’m sorry!” Silver said, his voice shaky and high-pitched. “I’m sorry but you can’t steal!”

Dread tried to break free from this strange hold, but his muscles would not obey him. It was as if he were completely frozen. Paralyzed. He struggled for another moment, before uttering a frustrated growl and giving up.

“Aye, lad,” he said with a sigh. “Ye got me. I surrender.”

~X~X~X~

Callie sat at the red light, lips pulled tight and feeling like the top of her head was about to explode.

Dread sat beside her, in the passenger seat, and he kept his gaze out the window. Her boys were in the back seat, and the microwave she apparently had to buy because the one at her house had met with an unfortunate fate was tucked in the cargo area of her Subaru.

No one said anything. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to speak anyway, considering how angry she was. At least not without a lot of colorful words sprinkled into the mix.

When she got the call to come to Charlie’s, she’d just seen the last of the book club out and was about to lock up anyway. Good thing. Because apparently the supposed adult she put in charge of her children had thought it a good idea to take them to be accomplices to attempted larceny.

At least Charlie had been understanding. Well, as understanding as he could be in such a strange situation. Trying to explain to him that this was a Knuckles, but not the Knuckles he was familiar with had taken a few tries. But when it suddenly clicked—”Like that Spiderman movie?”—he’d been much more willing to just let everything go.

Which was more than she was willing to do.

The light turned green and she pulled away. The ride to her house was a quiet one. She flicked her eyes to the rearview mirror, and saw two guilty looking kids in the back. Well, one guilty, and one pretty pissed kid. Eclipse kept shooting Dread dirty looks. He’d really been enthralled by the pirate, and when Dread essentially ditched them in favor of saving his own skin, it apparently left a sour taste in the darkling’s mouth. She didn’t blame him, really.

And she honestly wasn’t mad at them. They had done the right thing in the end and stopped Dread from running out with the microwave. That made her pretty proud, actually.

She pulled into her driveway, killing the engine and turning in her seat to talk to her boys.

“You two head on inside. We’ll be in in a minute.”

They nodded quickly, and hurried into the house. Callie turned to Dread, a finger tapping on the steering wheel.

“An hour. I was barely gone for one freaking hour.”

Dread said nothing, his back still turned to her.

“I trusted you.”

A beat of silence. “Aye. I know.”

She sighed, sitting back in her seat, tilting her head back against the rest. “Suppose it’s not your fault. You are how you are. I knew that and trusted you anyway.”

Now he turned, his lip curled in a snarl. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What do you think it means?” she asked, turning to him with her own snarl. “You’re a pirate! Knuckles the Dread! I should’ve known you’d do something to try and warp my kids’ minds to your pirate ways.”

His snarl became more pronounced. “I did nothing to those lads. I would not hurt them.”

“No, instead you dragged them off to shoplift a microwave!”

“There be a problem, and I found a solution!”

“A problem YOU caused!”

“It weren’t me fault! I was tryin’ to make ye proud!”

Callie uttered a sharp laugh, her temper flaring. “Proud?? For making my boys accomplices to your crime?? I trusted you! THEY trusted you! Do you realize just how badly you messed up? Those boys come from really bad childhoods! They were both used and abused by someone they trusted, someone who should have taken care of them. They—”

“SO WAS I!” he shouted, his hands curled into fists. “Ye don’t know anything about me childhood. I be a child of five when taken by a cruel man. He . . . his crew . . . they did the most awful things to me. I be just a child and they hurt me. Tortured me. I had to turn into this to survive.”

Callie quieted, and just stared at him. She didn’t know that. She didn’t really know anything about his childhood. He had always acted like being a pirate was the only thing he’d ever wanted. But, now that she thought about it, he’d always said it was the only thing he’d ever known. That was different, wasn’t it?

“Yer boys be good lads,” he said, some of the anger fading from his tone. “And aye, I admit it made me feel good to see them look up to me. To see their excitement when I told me tales.” He sighed, sitting back in his seat. “And ye be right. I could’ve done things diff’rently. Seen if I had enough gold on me to cover the cost. But instead I let me pirate instincts kick in and caused ye all this trouble.”

Silence descended over them, and Callie’s anger dissipated. She saw Dread in a different light now, and recognized the hurt little boy he used to be. Yes, he was a gremlin. Yes, he caused trouble and poked at the others and started fights. Yes, he seemed to behave in ways that were almost self-destructive.

But she’d seen that before, hadn’t she? When Eclipse first came, he’d acted out very similarly before he acclimated to the family. (And honestly, even now he could devolve into gremlin mode every now and then.) It was all a cover for the hurt he still carried. The pain from a life of abuse.

And sometimes that pain caused anger, and selfishness, and violence born of fear. Fear of being loved. Fear of being hurt again.

She could have kicked herself. Dread was suffering from the same trauma her own children were. And she’d never seen it.

“Those pirate instincts are what kept you alive,” she said, her voice softer.

Dread stared at his feet. “Don’t make what I did right.”

“No, it doesn’t.” She quieted. “Dread, I didn’t know.”

He shrugged, letting out a tired sigh. “I didn’t want ye to. Didn’t want anyone to. Me childhood be something I try to forget. Try to ignore. Pretend it happened to someone else. ‘Cause if I think about it, remember it, it would drive me mad.”

A quiet moment passed. The familiarity of his past trauma was almost funny. She seemed to attract the aliens with the abusive childhoods, while the Wachowskis attracted the ones with the abandonment issues.

Considering her own past, she supposed it was a case of like attracting like, only on a much more universal scale.

Callie reached over to cup his muzzle and turn his face back toward her.

“Our pasts hurt us whether we want to remember them or not,” she said, a sad smile on her lips. “My boys . . . they remember their pasts. Still have nightmares about them. I can’t change their past, or take those memories away. But what I can do, is try really hard to make sure their present has as much love and happiness as I can possibly give them.”

He stared at her, and his eyes grew shiny.

“They be lucky to have ye,” he whispered.

Callie’s heart nearly broke in half. For all his bravado, all his boasting and confidence and arrogance, Dread was still a lost little boy, trying to find someone who would love him.

“Ya know,” she said, rubbing her thumb over his muzzle, where a tear may or may not have fallen. “The boys seem to be under this really weird impression that you’re cool. So, I guess, if you wanted to, you could hang out here whenever you wanted.” She gave him a more stern look. “So long as you keep the crime sprees to an absolute minimum. Like zero.”

His eyes grew wide. “Ye . . . ye still want me around?”

She shrugged. “What kind of person would I be if I let a little thing like microwave destruction and attempted theft push away someone whom I consider one of my best friends?”

He froze. “B-best . . . ?”

“One of,” she said, keeping her voice light. “In the top five. It varies. Sometimes minute-by-minute.”

Dread stared at her for another moment, before a smile spread across his muzzle. “Ye be an angel, lass,” he said, and he blinked quickly to hide his tears. “An absolute angel made flesh.”

Callie wrinkled her nose, uttering a little grunt. “Ugh, don’t get all mushy and make this weird. C’mere.”

She pulled him to her, and took his hat off to rest their foreheads together.

“You ever need anything,” she said, her voice soft, “you come to me. Understand? You ever feel like you’re gonna explode if you don’t talk about something, or if your past is poking at you more than usual, or just need someone to be there, you come to me. Anytime. No judgment. My home is your home now. And you are part of my family. Don’t argue with me, just accept it.”

At first Dread didn’t seem like he knew what to do, how to feel. But after a moment he relaxed against her, and brought his hand up to cup the back of her neck to hold her to him more firmly.

“Aye,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “It be an honor to join your family.”

They sat like that for a moment, before pulling away. Callie gave him a little smirk, and dropped his hat back in place as she turned for her door.

“C’mon. Let’s get the new microwave in and then you need to have a little chat with a couple of boys.”

“Aye. Yes, ma’am.”

~X~X~X~

Eclipse sat on the couch with Silver. He crossed his arms, trying not to look at the stupid pirate standing before them.

His mom seemed to have forgiven Dread. They’d sat out in the car for a while after getting home and he’d watched through the window. They seemed like they were yelling for a bit, which was good because he wanted Dread to get into trouble. He was supposed to be this cool guy, this much cooler version of the Knuckles they knew. But instead he was just some jerk who ran off to let him and Silver get in trouble for something that was his idea.

Dread stood with his hands behind his back, a serious expression on his face. After standing quietly for a moment, he coughed into his fist before speaking.

“Yargh, I suppose an apology be in order for the way I behaved back in the shop.”

“You ditched us!” Eclipse snapped, his muzzle curled in a snarl. “You were gonna leave us to get into trouble!”

“Aye. I did.”

“The Knuckles we know wouldn’t do that,” Silver said, crossing his own arms. He wasn’t as angry as Eclipse, but wasn’t overly happy with Dread, either. “He’s a good friend and always does what he thinks is right.”

Dread shrugged. “I ain’t him.”

“No kidding,” Eclipse asked, jumping off the couch to get in Dread’s face. His arm spikes flared, tail flicking in angry whips. “I thought you were cool. You told such awesome stories. But you’re just a jerk and all those stories are probably lies, too!”

The echidna kept his composure, but a little smirk curled the corner of his lips. “Oh lad, they all be true. They be the more tame stories. There be many others, some would give ye nightmares for a week.”

Eclipse paused. More stories? With more danger?

He narrowed his eyes, casting a suspicious glance at the pirate. “Like what?”

A grin split Dread’s lips, and he tossed a glance over his shoulder. Callie was distracted in the kitchen, cleaning the messes from the old microwave and split cat feeder. The echidna turned back, leaning forward and speaking in a low, conspirator-like whisper.

“Like the time I single-handedly took down two pirate ships, while in the middle of a monsoon, and a kraken decided to have me for its lunch!”

Eclipse’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

“May lightning strike me down if I be lyin’.”

Silver took a moment to look to the skies outside, while Eclipse grabbed Dread’s wrist. He dragged the pirate behind him, heading for the kitchen door.

“We’re going outside, just to play and not to hear any more pirate stories that may be too scary for Silver!” he said, barely putting space between his words.

“Hey!” Silver whined, hurrying out after them. “I’m not scared!”

~X~X~X~

Callie smiled as she watched her boys through the window. Silver and Eclipse sat on the deck, watching as Dread gestured and mimed and told his grand—and in no way embellished—stories of his life as a pirate.

An eventful day, but everything worked out.

Her boys were happy. Dread was happy. She was happy.

Yep. She’ll call that a win.

#sonic fanfiction #sonic the hedgehog fanfiction #knucklesverse #knuckles the dread #eclipse the darkling #silver the hedgehog #callie macpherson #maddie wachowski

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